The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Jeff Lloyd yesterday called for parents to ensure students come to school prepared to learn and not engage in nefarious activities - and said campus security is under review.

Mr Lloyd told reporters on the sidelines of the HMBS Flamingo memorial service that security in schools is a very big issue.

He said: "This is a deep concern to us and I believe that the parents have to play a very important role in ensuring that students come to school to learn and participate in their educational pursuits because this is what our school is all about not to settle scores or to engage in activities which only threaten the learning environment.

"Our school police efforts are under review at all times. Naturally we are very concerned about whatever incidences of violence that may occur on campus or in campus facilities. Yes, that is under review and I can’t say if we are going to increase only because, obviously, we have to work with the Ministry of National Security, Royal Bahamas Police Force and even to extent the Defense Force."

He added: "We are however reviewing our own internal security apparatus... so we can be sure we have adequate security and I don’t want to say hot spots but there are places that tend to have more security needs than others."

When asked if schools will use CCTV and metal detectors in the nearby future, Mr Lloyd said: "Well I wouldn’t say metal detectors but as you know we signed last year with BTC and Cable Bahamas as well as Walkers Industries early this year to digitise the entire education system. That included security as well.

"That there is an opportunity for the principals, district superintendents and us at headquarters to know precisely by way of security by visual and other means exactly what is going on. Proper lighting, proper visual access to the school campuses so that is on the way.

He explained: "This exercise is approximately 18 months we have already completed our first ten schools and we expect by September we will have 40 schools to 50 schools under our belt, so we are going to be well on our way. "

The education minister said the ministry are going to be very aggressive renovating schools for the upcoming fiscal year.

He said: "You have heard many times I’ve said that the plan is quite old and in need of upgrading.

"We can’t just simply keep putting off and off especially those major repairs that are required - CR Walker and HO Nash and others, such as DW Davis. We have to get on top of those because otherwise we are looking at possible unfortunate circumstances so we are going to be very aggressive.

"I’m very grateful to the Ministry of Finance for acceding to our request for an increase in funding. Not as much as I would like but there is an increase nevertheless, so we are hitting the ground right now.

"Even though the fiscal year has not yet started. our scope of works has been completed and we are now mobilising our teams and external vendors, contractors and others to get on the ground. Because, in some instances some repairs are going to take a little bit longer than a summer ordinarily would so we need to get the head start that we need."