WEST INDIES, February 28, 2008 — Parents should get their children involved in Sunday School as a way of helping to reduce the nation's rising crime rate and juvenile delinquency, according to the West Indies Children's Advocate Mary Clarke. She was speaking at the launch of the Bible Society of the West Indies’ (BSWI) eighth annual National Bible Quiz.
Referring to the worsening state of crime, violence and juvenile delinquency in the country, Mrs Clarke said, “It tells me something isn’t going right in our society."
Between 2001 and September last year the number of juveniles in correctional centres grew from 189 to 402.
For year after year in the 1990s, said the Children's Advocate, juvenile correctional centres were operating below capacity. "Now we have to be building a new centre in Montpelier to cope with the increase of children in the criminal justice system."
But, she added, recent research among 11-year-olds showed that was among the factors contributing to positive social behaviour in youngsters and an ability to resist violence and aggression was church attendance.
"Some of us knew this long ago," she said. " At church, they learn the principles of the Bible and I can guarantee that Christian principles, if adopted in Jamaica by most persons, could revolutionise this country."
She appealed for a return to the days when parents sent their children to Sunday School.
"It is in Sunday School and through the study of the Bible that children are provided with a moral compass," she said. "This helps to develop their conscience; they are provided with teachings and examples to understand actions and the related consequences of actions."
She also appealed to young people themselves to uphold wholesome values and principles – even when society might discourage or challenge them.
"Society may want to make you feel that if you're not going with the crowd, [that] you're out of it," she said. "I dare to contradict this and to beg you, let the evidence speak!"
Mrs Clarke commended the BSWI on its work of building up attitudes and values in society, and encouraged young people to get involved in the National Bible Quiz.
Pupils from 117 preparatory, primary and high schools will compete in this year's competition, which is running until March.
The BSWI distributes Bibles and other books to children in a large number of Jamaica's primary schools. It also publishes a Bible in Jamaican creole for young adults, as well as the Good News Bible, a modern English translation widely used in primary schools, which is the required version for quiz participants.
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