Civics to be re-introduced into schools

The Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator Ruel Reid, has reiterated that the teaching of civics will be reintroduced in schools.  I am in total agreement with this move towards ensuring that the minds of our young people are embedded with the requisite knowledge about their culture and the core principles of citizenry. He has emphasized that national awareness is an important part of a child's development, and the teaching of civics must again occupy its rightful pride of place in schools. He also posited that students must be taught about their history, where they are coming from and where they intend to go.  

 As a History major, I have developed a greater understanding of and appreciation for our cultural history.  I am overwhelmingly ecstatic to be apart of this cohort of teachers who aim to ensure that a sense of national pride is instilled in our children as this Curriculum is centered around the guiding principles of  Garvey's philosophy to foster self-affirmation and social transformation.  This is encouraged as a noteworthy initiative by the Jamaican government through the strategic reintroduction of the Civics curriculum in schools. 

Citizenship education will provide a skewed curriculum which pays specific attention to the fundamentals of governance. It will provide the students with information that is geared towards developing a better understanding of and appreciation for the system of government that is put in place. They will be introduced to how the government system functions under the underlying principles that speaks to the democratic government structure. It will also cover the duties, responsibilities and importance of all the branches/arms of government (the legislative, judicial and executive) as we strive for compliance as citizens of the country.

It also provides an avenue for students to be acclimatized to citizenry as they develop the mindset which will evolve around the acceptance of who they are, an appreciation of their cultural heritage, their roles and responsibilities and how these will help them to become global citizens gushing with national pride which will act as a boost to national development through nation building. There is a transcendence of their point of view as they utilize this discipline to enact a sense of belonging and identity and actively participate in the affairs of their country.  It is then safe to say that Citizenship education seeks to inform students of all matters relating to their advancement through the systems. As learned persons they can inherently influence systems for the good of society.

"The ultimate goal is for our students to realize their fullest potential. We need to grab every opportunity to strengthen our craft as education practitioners.  We need to constantly renew our methodologies and approaches," Senator Reid said.  With this reintroduction of Citizenship education into our educational sphere, instructors must develop an awareness and full understanding of the core principles of the content in order to be fully competent and able to effectively relay the requisite information to the students. 

Contributed by:
Tyhishia Clarke
4BHSS
BMC Social Studies Department

Marrio hall

Marrio hallThwaites Urges Reid To Build On Civics Module

Published:Tuesday | April 5, 2016 | 4:00 AM

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Jermaine Barnaby

Ruel Reid

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Former Minister of Education, Ronald Thwaites has implored Senator Ruel Reid, newly appointed education minister, to ensure that teachers have a strong appreciation of the various aspects of civics, in order for there to be success and sustainability.

Reid announced that he will be reintroducing the teaching of civics in school, while addressing principals and teachers at the Jamaica Teachers' Association 15th Annual Education Conference, held at Jewel Runaway Bay Beach and Golf Resort in St Ann, recently.

Thwaites, during his tenure, had also introduced civics as a module included in the social-studies curriculum.

The former education minister said he believes Reid's first order of business should be proper training of teachers in the subject area.

"It's important that teachers have a good command of civics in its broadest sense. It has to be inculcated in their training and where they are already trained and in the classrooms, additional workshops and seminars are to be held to continue the professional development," he said.

"The teachers are the ones who will be disseminating the information, thus teachers have to model good civics beyond any text. I hope he will continue," the former education minister said.

He added: "We have a big responsibility as media, however, because the popular culture doesn't always promote good citizenship, what the children hear in the nights and on the street corner, sometimes it is difficult for the school alone to antidote. I do appreciate his early concern for the continuation of the programme because I strongly believe that money is not the only factor holding us back in education, but rather a weak social capital."

Thwaites told The Gleaner that, for the most part there has been success following the introduction of the subject during his tenure. He also stressed the importance of collaboration if the objective is to be achieved.

"We started in late 2012 and we centred it around the philosophy and opinions of Marcus Garvey (Jamaica's first National Hero) and it was introduced as a module in the social-studies curriculum. We commissioned a text and a teachers' guide and, as such, it wasn't optional it was mandatory," he said.

"I believe, for the most part, it was sustained and where teachers were interested in getting students to understand their race and culture, it has gone very well. There have been cases, however, where teachers don't think much of Marcus Garvey and, frankly, are not committed to the character development of their students in the way we are trying to meet our objectives," Thwaites continued.

Kandi-Lee Crooks Smith, principal of the Allman Town Primary School, said she welcomed the civics curriculum and was a success for the most part.

Patria-Kaye Aarons | Bring Back Civics

Published:Tuesday | December 6, 2016 | 12:00 AM

NO TWO ways about it, all well-thinking Jamaicans, all honest and decent Jamaicans, want the country to see the back of crime and criminals.

People are angry and afraid and affected by the violence that is a very real beast in our country. Whether murder or lottery scamming or gang war, crime is carried out by a few rotten apples. But crime does happen, and these few rotten apples hold us all hostage and affect every single one of us.

Let's talk numbers. Up to the middle of May this year, 409 people were murdered. That's three people a day. One hundred and seventy-seven women were raped. There were 453 break-ins - in this little country. These are unnaturally high numbers, which, in other countries, would signal a national emergency.

So when the Minister of National Security Bobby Montague calls for a reinstatement of hanging, or when Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in his Budget presentation, indicates his desire to have some murder suspects held without bail, there are a lot of people who cheer.

Some people feel like we need to rid Jamaica of criminals, by any means necessary. And I, too, would probably be all for it, if I were sure we were hanging the right person, and if I were sure we were imprisoning the murderer. If the system were perfect, absolutely. But Jamaica ain't perfect.

Far from it.

HOW MUCH DO WE KNOW?

And I can't help but think, what if I were put on the wrong side of the law in error? Stranger things have happened. In this very imperfect system, I am not at all comfortable with signing away my right to freedom before I am even tried.

So, as lawyers debate the legality of what has been proposed by our leaders, and if the politicians who set the laws are unclear, and the lawyers who defend the law can't agree, what of me and you? It raises a big question in my mind: we, average people, how much do we know about our laws? About our rights?

We see it on the news all the time. When challenged by law enforcement, the first thing out of people's mouths is, "I know my rights." I bet you if you ask that person, "What are your rights? Tell me,", you'll hear silence.

The bitter truth is that most of us live in a country with laws governing our very lives that we don't know, nor do we know how those laws affect us.

Were it not for lawyers, dog woulda nyam a lot of wi supper.

Now, I don't expect us to know the laws with the proficiency of those who earn a living from it. But you need to know if you have a right to a phone call. You need to know for how long the police can lock you up without charging you. You need to know if you bail somebody and they run away, you can then be locked up.

For a privileged few Jamaicans, their first introduction to the laws of this country isn't until and unless they attend the UWI. They have a mandatory course called law, governance, economy and society. How many of us actually get to university? For those who don't, when do they learn about their rights?

The reality is that a disproportionate number of people who have their rights infringed upon have never been to university. They've never been taught what the laws are, or what their rights are.

And it's not just the poor. Most of us just try to live well and stay out of trouble using common sense. Lawyers know the law. The rest of us, if we are to be honest, are just winging it. And that's a dangerous thing.

There was an announcement in 2012 that civics would be back in schools on a wide-scale basis. It hasn't materialised. A similar announcement was made by the current minister of education in March of this year. It needs to happen, and not just at the primary level.

The Child Development Agency has been very good at sharing with primary-school students what their rights are as children. And that's an amazing start.

We need to graduate the conversation in high schools to what our rights are as Jamaicans. School is more than churning out people who can spell and count.

As a government, if we're going to ask our people to be fully functioning, contributing member of the society; if we're going to ask them to play this game called life, we have to teach them the rules.

Civics is a must!Marrio Hall