Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly is ad­vis­ing par­ents to lis­ten and look at Trini­bad mu­sic and videos so they can get an un­der­stand­ing of what their chil­dren are be­ing ex­posed to. She lament­ed that chil­dren were falling prey to out­comes that were not pos­i­tive.

“You might need a trans­la­tor, which is a young per­son, be­cause, in many cas­es, you can­not even un­der­stand what is be­ing said,” she ex­plained.

Speak­ing at the Min­istry’s EdUTalk Se­ries at Hilton Trinidad, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, the min­is­ter said chil­dren, neigh­bours and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers un­der­stand the lyrics very well.

“Our young peo­ple are liv­ing in a cul­ture of vi­o­lence,” she said.

The min­is­ter said the youth ab­sorb the vi­su­als and words from the songs, and those who have ac­cess to il­le­gal guns live it. “That mu­sic is like an an­them and like a mantra,” she said. Dr Gads­by-Dol­ly said it was hard for some young peo­ple to tran­scend the vi­o­lence and neg­a­tiv­i­ty.

“Be­tween 2015 and 2019, of the 510 per­sons charged for mur­der, 62 per cent of them were be­tween the ages of 15 and 29. Nine­ty-six per cent of them were males,” she ex­plained.

The min­is­ter said in 2022, 54 per cent of all vi­o­lent crimes, in­clud­ing mur­der, were com­mit­ted by youth be­tween the ages of 15 and 29.

“This is our re­al­i­ty. This is where we are. Young peo­ple be­tween those ages are falling prey to out­comes that are not pos­i­tive,” she said.

Based on in­for­ma­tion from the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices, the min­is­ter said some chil­dren go home and can­not do home­work but are forced to par­tic­i­pate in ac­tiv­i­ties their com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers en­gage in.

“There are chil­dren who lost their lives in com­mu­ni­ties sim­ply be­cause peo­ple felt they were too good or peo­ple felt they were bet­ter than,” she said.

Gads­by-Dol­ly said this was why cul­tur­al trans­for­ma­tion is need­ed in the Ed­u­ca­tion Pol­i­cy so these chil­dren can get a taste of a dif­fer­ent life.

“We are speak­ing about tak­ing our chil­dren out of this cul­ture where vi­o­lence is ac­cept­able and nor­mal and revered. We are tak­ing them out of that and ex­pos­ing them to dif­fer­ent ex­pe­ri­ences that will change their mind­set, their par­a­digm,” she ex­plained.

The min­is­ter said if this was not done, then the fu­ture of T&T is at stake.

In Jan­u­ary, Kashif “Kman 6ixx” Sankar vowed to clean up his act af­ter Caribbean is­lands Grena­da and St Kitts and Nevis banned him from per­form­ing there. St Lu­cia took is­sue with his sup­posed links to gang ac­tiv­i­ties, which he was charged for ear­li­er this month.