ATTORNEY GENERAL Adriel Brathwaite wants a system implemented to track young people who have been expelled from secondary school to ensure they do not “fall through the cracks”.
And he told stakeholders attending a one-day symposium at Hilton Barbados yesterday to deal with “high-risk” students to come up with a protocol to address this problem.
Brathwaite told the gathering, which included officials from the Government Industrial School (GIS), Ministry of Education and Police Force, among others, that it was drawn to his attention a few months ago that young boys and girls who were expelled from school were falling off the radar.
“The Ministry of Education wasn’t following up, the police weren’t following up and in many cases, by the time they came to the Government Industrial School, they found out that the child had been expelled from school for two years and during that time, rather than having constructive engagement, they went where they found welcoming arms in terms of on-the-block liming, and next thing you know, they were in trouble.”
The minister said when he found out this was happening, he convened a meeting with stakeholders at the Ministry of Education to address the situation. He said it was agreed that a protocol would be established to track these expelled children.
