M inister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly must be commended for finally allowing 200 Venezuelan migrant children, whose parents are legally registered in this country, to be enrolled in certain primary schools.
Some migrants left Venezuela to seek a better life here. It seems that T&T, with its increasing crime, poverty, and bleak economic outlook, still offers hope to some.
Children uprooted from their neighbourhoods, relatives, and culture may face a difficult time settling in a new country, especially living in squalor with parents fearful of being deported.
As a matter of fact, we were obligated to follow Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, which states:1. Countries should recognise the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:(a) Make primary education compulsory and free to all;(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need;(c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means;(d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children;(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.
Criticism of the Government’s decision has come from the taxpayers struggling to make ends meet, who think it is unfair they have to foot this bill, which is clearly due to a failure of our national security apparatus in protecting our borders.
More so, since the Government has increased the statutory limit of borrowings under the Developmental Loans Act from $65 to $75 billion, as this creates an economic burden for our future generation.
A possible solution is to request that the UN and other NGOs who were demanding this help assist in footing the bill.We can tap into UNICEF’s Education Thematic Fund, where the income reached $39.4 million in 2022.Bilingual teachers can also be requested from the UN, as some local teachers are already overburdened by their regular workload, and not all are fluent in Spanish.
These unfortunate children did not ask to come here. I am confident most of our parents would see the need to educate them regardless of their sentiments on illegal migrants.
Allowing 200 children into the educational system would also allow citizens to monitor any continued lapse with our border security if enrolment numbers keep increasing.
Besides the cost burden and teacher burnout, we also have to be cognizant of the emotional problems that can be encountered by migrant children.
On April 8, 2021, in a US News article, “Suicidal thoughts are increasing in young kids”, Tyler Kingkade writes, “More than a dozen mental health professionals, including school counsellors, social workers, psychiatrists and suicidologists, said they are seeing more children as young as kindergarten who are in dire need of support.
“For children of immigrant families, based on interviews with more than 200 Latino parents, we found both adults and children in their families had higher levels of anxiety due to fears of deportation and anti-immigrant rhetoric... poverty has as an impact also.”
We have always known that the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and PTSD tends to be higher among migrants than among host populations.
In the October 2023 issue of Schizophrenia Research, a Swedish national study on migration and risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, found that “first-generation migrants had increased risk of schizophrenia and decreased risk of bipolar disorder. Childhood migrants from all regions had increased risk of schizophrenia.”
Our psychiatric clinics need to prepare.Clinic appointments could be coordinated with a translator provided by the Venezuelan embassy, who can capture cultural nuances missed by Google translation. We need to provide services that are culturally sensitive to encourage participation.
We need to also factor in school lunches for these migrant children.
Although teasing is common in young children, it can lead to isolation and bullying; we need a protocol in place to mitigate this possibility.
While people think that primary school children are exempt from depression, recent data collected in the USA for NBC News by the Children’s Hospital Association, found that the number of children ages 6-12 who visited children’s hospitals for suicidal thoughts or self-harm has more than doubled since 2016.
The association documented 5,485 emergency room or inpatient visits for suicidal thoughts and self-harm among 6 to 12-year-olds at these hospitals in 2019, up from 2,555 in 2016.
We need to prepare to meet the emotional demands of our own children and also the migrant children who may have a greater need.