The situation at Arima Senior Comprehensive is a microcosm of all that is wrong with our education system. When a school population dwindles from about 1400 to about 150 the staff, especially the principal, are the first ones to be held accountable.

Yes, there are failures on the side of the Ministry of Education; yes, there are failures on the part of parents; but most of all, it is a staff failure.

The chaos at Arima Senior Comprehensive means that teachers and principal are not of one mind and heart in the most serious business of education. And as Jesus said: “ A house divided against itself cannot stand .” (Mk 3:25)

People often complain about today's student population: they disrupt classes; they disregard the dress code; they peddle drugs; they assault teachers and damage property.

These allegations are true but only in a minority of cases; most students at school are not delinquent. We therefore believe the school environment can change if teachers work hand in hand, and if parents see themselves as major stakeholders in their children's education. We tend to forget children with behavioural dysfunctions do not drop from the sky.

Behavioural dysfunctions have a history rooted in bad parenting, domestic abuse and poverty. Children come to school with these problems and the trained teacher must know how to detect them.

But this is exactly one of the problems in our education system: most of our teachers have excellent academic degrees but they are not trained in the field of education.

If we add untrained teachers to the mix of teachers divided against themselves and a hurting school population, is it any wonder we encounter cases of arson? Why then are we so surprised?

“LACK OF NERVE”

Teachers have been crying out to successive governments for years for more social workers for schools and these cries fell on deaf ears until recently.

We look forward to seeing the kind of work that will be undertaken by the recently formed Student Support Services. We also hope to hear more about student councils; these are necessary today so that children will have some say in how they are being taught.

In return, children must take their education seriously and not see their school as one big liming block.

We have also been hearing about the expulsion of persistently delinquent and violent students. While we accept this as a last resort, we refuse to accept that children can be expelled while teachers of similar brand are allowed to ensconce themselves safely in their professional havens.

We need to ensure that teachers are interested in education as vocation and not in education as vacation. History teachers can perform an invaluable task for students by giving them hope; they can show children how despite the almost insurmountable obstacles in the past, including poverty, our nation produced highly educated persons of international standing.

Poverty must not be so easily used as an excuse for academic failure. We must not forget the words of the Nobel laureate from India , Amartya Sen: “The way out of poverty is through education.”

The famous Oxford classicist, Gilbert Murray, said that classical civilisation collapsed because of a “lack of nerve” – a refusal to live the highest ideals of antiquity. We too – parents, teachers, students – must not cause our education system to collapse due to a lack of nerve.