ROSE HALL, St James - Betty-Ann Blaine, convener of Hear the Children's Cry and Youth Opportunities Unlimited, yesterday cautioned educators to be vigilant in the face of what she described as a move to take God out of the island's public schools.

Blaine. two major challenges are facing our schools (Photo: Pat Roxborough-Wright)

"Two major challenges are facing our schools. One is the culture of violence and the other is the growing problem of immorality," she said at the opening session of the Jamaica Teachers' Association's annual professional development day. "The c****ination of the two is so deadly that if you teachers do not understand it, there's no way you can stay in the classroom."

Named after former Knox College educator, Helen Stills, the day saw hundreds of educators from across the island converging on the Rose Hall Country Club to participate in a series of presentations structured around the theme 'Building a Culture of Learning in Schools: Enabling Successful and Independent Learners'.

Pointing to a lessening of the emphasis on morning devotion in some schools as one example of what she was talking about, Blaine explained that this robbed students of a crucial opportunity to be exposed to certain values and attitudes to set the tone of their school day.

"There's a kind of liberal laissez-faire philosophy that everything is alright. that whatever America does we can do. but you have to be very careful of that word diversity, because the way in which they define it is not necessarily the way we do," she said.

Pointing to the need for teachers to understand themselves and their environment as a prerequisite to executing an effective job of teaching, Blaine urged the educators to focus attention on the Ministry of Education as policymakers influencing the teaching/learning process.

"Pay attention to what is happening at Heroes' Circle," she said in reference to the address of the education ministry's head office.

"You must know who is at Heroes' Circle, because anything you see happening out there is not just happening by chance, it is being driven by someone. When issues like condoms in schools, expletives in textbooks, redefinitions of the family unit to include homosexuality come up, somebody is driving them," she said.

Her words in this regard caused the education ministry's director of communication, Dr Charlene Ashley, some amount of concern, but Blaine was careful to point out in a subsequent interview with the Observer that her words were not intended as a jab at the ministry.

She did, however, use the opportunity to state her objection to the recent controversial idea of training teachers as policemen.

"If anybody thinks that turning teachers into policemen can solve the problem they must be joking... dem haffi wheel and come again on that one... we can't fix education unless we fix family life in this country," she said. "Teachers, you need to demand certain prerequisites from the State so that you can be the best teachers you can be. "Otherwise, no matter how good a teacher you are, it won't work," she said.