By Johnny Coomansingh
Somehow these days I am familiarising myself with the proverb: ‘As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined’ because it relates to the maxim: ‘Children learn what they live.’ Scrolling through Facebook earlier yesterday, I saw this old woman in a Tik-Tok presentation plastering the airwaves with ‘eff’ bombs or what we refer to as Yankee passwords. She seemed to be extremely angry about the present political scene in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). I agree that a vast number of people are upset with the recently installed government, but this woman was not an example to any of our children; none at all! She showed a side of her being that definitely displayed her lack of childhood training; no ‘broughtupcy.’
Let me be clear. A new government was voted in on April 28, 2025. The United National Congress (UNC) won 26 seats in Trinidad. Joining them were two winners from the Tobago People’s Party (TPP). Taking the opposition seats were 13 members of the People’s National Movement (PNM). Question: What was the real reason why the PNM lost the general elections? Is there anyone brave enough to field an answer for the PNM’s demise? Was the UNC’s election campaign machinery so effective that the PNM stood no chance? Was “…the gospel of the PNM” an untruth? Are there any answers? I get some of my answers from the sitting of parliament.
I sometimes watch the T&T parliament in session on Friday afternoons. Last Friday, members of the opposition walked out of the chamber. Bedlam! Why were they shouting? I hope to hear in the next sitting why they refused to listen to the Speaker of the House. There is a level of dissatisfaction and disagreement on a number of issues. Griping and grumbling, fuming and arguing, ‘cussing’ and fighting, will not change the price of cocoa. What comes back to bite the opposition is the fact that they had nine and a half years to fix everything that needed fixing in T&T, especially in the Ministry of Education (MoE).
Somehow, I am beginning to believe that the opposition members are feeling uncomfortable because of their loss at the elections. I have the feeling that they think that they have all the answers to fix things now. Were they sleeping during those years when they were in power? I know for sure that the minister of national security was one member who literally slept in parliament. Okay, maybe this sleeping member had what we call narcolepsy, which presents as ‘Excessive Daytime Sleepiness’ (EDS). This condition is marked by persistent, irresistible drowsiness and a lack of energy, despite adequate or long nighttime sleep. We could forgive that. Sleep is one thing, but blindness is another, and do we not know that ‘none is so blind as he who will not see?’
There are some of us who blessed with good eyes but are destined to be blind. Such people shirk the responsibility of facing the problems we have today in some of our high schools in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). In the lyrics of his calypso titled ‘Education a Must’ Dr Francisco Slinger (Mighty Sparrow) advised:
“Children, go to school and learn well
Otherwise, later on in life you will catch real hell
Without an education in your head
Your whole life will be pure misery; you’re better off dead
For there is simply no room in this whole wide world
For an uneducated little boy or girl
Don’t allow idle companions to lead you astray
“To earn tomorrow, you have to learn today.”
We keep censuring and reprimanding some students for their horrible behaviour in our high schools but we seldom entertain that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Violence emanating in the high school is a symptom of an underlying cause. To whom should we look if we want to address the root cause? Four factors work in tandem towards the socialisation of any individual. These factors are the home, the school, the community and the mass media. Referring to their stubbornness and their bad, rebellious behaviours, some parents still believe that the child will ‘grow it out.’ Some never grow it out. They grow it in. The word, ‘whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap’ is not a lie.
All children have parents, but there could be a lack of parenting. Psychology Today (www.psychology.com) provided an explanation about what constitutes the process of parenting:
“To parent effectively, it’s not enough to simply avoid the obvious dangers like abuse, neglect, or overindulgence. Indeed, The National Academy of Sciences delineates four major responsibilities for parents: (i). Maintaining children’s health and safety, (ii). Promoting their emotional well-being, (iii). Instilling social skills, and (iv). Preparing them intellectually.
Numerous studies suggest that the best-adjusted children are reared by parents who find a way to combine warmth and sensitivity with clear behavioural expectations.
Parents may find the Four C’s to be a helpful acronym: Care (showing acceptance and affection), Consistency (maintaining a stable environment), Choices (allowing the child to develop autonomy), and Consequences (applying repercussions of choices, whether positive or negative)… Ultimately, parents should strive to be loving but firm, while allowing children enough space to develop their own interests, explore independence, and experience failure.”
Politically, I am not taking sides, and it is certainly not my intention to preach a sermon here. However, parents or guardians have a solemn God-given responsibility. Bringing a child into the world is a serious thing. Just glibly bringing children into the world and not shouldering the responsibility to make sure that the child is properly trained to contribute positively to society is reprehensible. There are too many children in T&T who are ‘parentless’ and who do not enjoy the blessing of a true home. Many children are dragged up, and invariably, display their wicked and deleterious behaviours that overflow into the school system. The biblical injunction declares: “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Listening to the statistics concerning violence and bullying in some of the high schools of T&T is more than worrisome. I am in a quandary about how and why we have come to this situation. Some schools in certain locations are more violent than others. In Sherlan Ramsubhag’s article in the Daily Express (03/05/2026) ‘Classroom fights rise…revised National School Code of Conduct launched’ the Michael Dowlath, minister of education in T&T, said that “his ministry has recorded a troubling increase in school violence, with data showing a shift in the number of incidents from outside to inside classrooms.”
The article added:
“Reiterating the ministry’s data showed troubling trends regarding indiscipline and school violence, Dowlath said: “Between 2022 and 2025, over 22,000 suspensions were recorded nationally. Violence-related incidents, particularly fights and assaults, showed an upward trajectory…In our highest-risk secondary schools, violence-related suspensions were consistently high. In 2023 to 2024, there were 875; in 2024 to 2025, there were 738; and in 2025 to 2026, there were 776.”
“… In 2023, the ministry did a climate survey in our schools, and it was also found that bullying was also a major issue, together with vaping… adding such data required that the ministry revise the National School Code of Conduct…There could be no sustained improvement in teaching and learning without order, safety and discipline in our schools. If learning is our core mission, then discipline is not peripheral; it is foundational…When classrooms are disrupted, instructional time is lost. When teachers feel unsupported, morale declines. When serious incidents escalate, fear replaces focus, and what then happens is academic performance declines.”
For the sake of students who might want to throw in the towel, to wallow in the valley of despair, to fight against the rules and regulations, to be a trouble-maker, or decide to become a problem in society, let me kindly offer a byte about my experience. Taking what the Bible taught me and the Mighty Sparrow’s advice on education, I decided to be the best that I could be. Let me be clear, life for me was no bed of roses. Living way below the poverty line, fatherless, and with eight siblings, the road I travelled was fraught with difficulties. Despite all the inconveniences during my high-school life, I did not resort to the creation of chaos and mayhem in the school or at home. I understood that I had a choice; a choice for good. Always remember, no one is born a winner, no one is born a loser, but all are born to choose.
Mounting pressures at home and at school were responsible for me wanting to quit high school at least four times. I used to worry more about our family’s destitution than my lessons at school. Nevertheless, I managed, with the help of certain teachers, to stay on course until I graduated with a Cambridge University General Certificate of Education (GCE O-level). Not getting a moment to catch my breath after my examinations, I was thrust into high school teaching stream. I never wanted to be a teacher, but here I was.
As I said so many times before, someone is always watching. My primary school principal was looking out for me. He knew about my family’s economic circumstances and found for me a job. He did not ask me if I wanted the job. He instructed me to go to the principal of Bates Memorial High School to discuss a position to teach. The first question the principal asked me: “Did you pass mathematics? I answered in the affirmative. “Well, you are going to be the mathematics master of the entire school,” he said.
With a population of just about 130 students, this school had five forms (classes). I would teach new mathematics in forms one, two and three and traditional mathematics, a combination of algebra, arithmetic, geometry/trigonometry in forms four and five. Not only was I assigned to teach mathematics, but I also taught Integrated Science in the lower forms and Human and Social Biology in forms four and five. Although I was quite young, I also functioned as the health educator, sports master, and dean of the school during my tenure. And that was only the beginning of my career.
Funny as it may sound, I passed mathematics without ever owning a personal mathematics textbook. I was too poor to buy any kind of book. With all the “trials and tribulations’ that befell me, there was something deep in my soul that drove me to succeed. I am in no position to influence anyone to believe what I believed, and to do what I did.
Nevertheless, on the day I was baptised in the Valencia River in Trinidad, I rose up from the water with these words in my mind: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” Yes! There are all these things that were added unto me. Maybe this twig was bent in the right direction.
