Acting Chief Education Officer Glenroy Cumberbatch said Saturday at a Press conference at ministry headquarters, it would be conducted at all levels in some schools.

Minister of Education Reginald Farley said the survey would also look at the impact of violence.

"We would want to be able to have that study undertaken so that we can get a feel, particularly on the causes, because when we know them we would be able to do a lot more to address them," he said.

The minister added that they had also insisted that principals reported all cases of violence or "unusual activity" to them because in the past, the ministry "would hear things" but when they checked, no reports were filed.

"We also insisted that schools must not act in such a manner as would suggest that things that are illegal outside of the school wall are legal inside.

"So that any act of violence which would attract the attention of police outside of school walls, call the police and let them deal with it.

"We do not share this view with some in the wider community, and some in the school community has held, that to expose these things will reflect negatively
on the school. That's a short-term perspective," Farley said.

He added: "If people become emboldened and they continue to do these things, they would eventually come out into the light. "It may very well be too late to change a culture of lawlessness and violence and drug use in any institution, so I would rather come out and face the grim reality, how unpleasant as it might be that on a given day that a particular incident happened."

The minister added that there were parents who might not know what their children
were doing or what they might be exposed to, and in an effort "to galvanise" the support of the society and stamp out the acts, the schools had to reveal them.

Cumberbatch also disclosed that there were "a few" cases at both primary and secondary schools where parents paid for damage caused by their child/ children to other people and property.