TTUTA President Martin Lum Kin says, the school suspension figures revealed by Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath were very surprising. He was speaking on TV6 Morning Edition.
00:00Just over 21,000 secondary school students were suspended within the period of 2022-2025.
00:08This was revealed by Minister of Education Dr. Michael Dowlath during the Parliament's debate on the supplementary funding of the 2025 budget.
00:16The education minister said between 2022 and 2025, secondary school suspensions rose by nearly 87 percent, from 5,167 in 2022-2023 to 9,676 in 2024-2025.
00:35Today, Tutor's President Martin Lumpkin said the figures revealed by the education minister are a cause of great concern,
00:43adding that the numbers revealed over just around the time the country was coming out of the pandemic.
00:49And we just came out of COVID, and so we have to also look at the impact of COVID on the psyche of the students
00:58in terms of how that lockdown would have impacted on them as well too.
01:03So when we have these statistics, we need to further break down and look at it.
01:09But it is a worrying statistic that we are seeing at this time.
01:15Tutor's President said he supports the need for suspension when necessary,
01:19as his association has been pronouncing on a number of issues that takes place within the education system for years.
01:25There are categories where instantaneously you apply the suspension for the suspension and expulsion if necessary.
01:35But one of the things as well is when you suspend what happens to that child, do you just keep them out of the school?
01:44Is there no sort of intervention and reformation before you bring back the child?
01:50And that is also a concern of the association as well as what is taking place in society.
01:58So we are seeing symptoms of a deep problem.
02:03And the Honourable Minister of Homeland Security spoke.
02:07So when he spoke about the use of illicit drugs in the schools,
02:12he spoke about getting to the root of it, which we look forward to.
02:16Making a link between the disciplinary problem and the massive staffing shortage of teachers in the nation's schools,
02:22Lumpkin said that there needs to be better communication between the Ministry of Education and the Teaching Service Commission
02:29before any vacancy can be filled in the education sector.
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