One of the things I wonder is why no one ever got a scholarship from Polytechnic such as building drawing,pastry, automotive or any of the other hands on courses that they do.

 Everyone is not academically incline but their have those few that are quite gifted with they hands and should be made to feel just as special as those who win scholarship base on academics.

For  those of you that are aware of New York you would know that they have a high school for almost every discipline you can think about. So imagine at 14 years when a child enters High school homing their craft it is obvious that they would be way more advance than us in the Caribbean who have to wait until 16 or older to finish school in order to go on to the next chapter in our  lives.

I went to school in New York for a bit and they had a program at my school....New town High ........like a year release....where you left your school and go away for a year to a school/hospital......... that is providing you wanted to do practical nursing.... and learn this craft so that when you finish high school and that is what you want to do you can go straight to work. 

So my idea is a model something like this because i find that we are loosing too much of our boys to the gun (death) or liming on the block.

I would like to see teachers from polytechnic or the national training board have particular days where they are attached to these low end schools to teach a skill. It can either be done where teachers go to students or students meet at these colleges on particular days. If the Teachers go to the students then i guess it can be done where you have teachers that concentrate on the north of the island some on the south and then central.

 I for one don't think that a child should go through school and come out without cxc or a skill to go on to the next step in their lives. I feel that when a child then registers at the polytechnic they should be registering to do the intermediate or advance program. All the foundation courses for any particular skill should be taught in secondary school.

2. I feel that any child that is a trouble maker or gets into trouble repeatedly at school no matter how minor one of the requirement of they punishment is they  should have to join scouts, Cadettes or the Defense force and it is non negotiable.It should be placed in print at the school and given to new students entering each school whether primary, secondary or tertiary so that everyone would be on the same page and it would be known up front. We need to stamp out this foolishness that is taking over our society and our children.

3. We need to educate parents on how to be parents....work shops and training on how to be a parent.

Submitted by Sonia Devonish