Teachers and students march for peace

ZIZ News..Oct 28 2011 – A huge march and parade today ending at Warner Park brought the curtains down on the passion for peace week organized by the Ministry of Education through its Project PURPLE campaign.

The streets of Basseterre were washed with the color purple, as thousands of students and their teachers marched for peace in our schools and the country on a whole.

The students, most of them decked in purple T’s, marched in solidarity as they depict the issues affecting our society today with banners and placards.

Project PURPLE, which stands for Promoting Understanding, Respect and Peace in the Learning Environment, was conceptualized to deal with the issues of violence and bullying in schools.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mrs. Ionie Liburd-Willet said “for too long we have been hearing too much about crime and violence in our Federation and this violence and indiscipline are spilling over into our schools. It is to this end that the Ministry of Education sought to address this situation by piloting a violence prevention program, Project PURPLE in some of our high schools.”

And the chief education officer, Dr. Patrick Welcome says the marched showed the entire country that students, teachers and the entire education department are fed up with crime and violence.

“We are working with the guidance counselors to ensure that the relevant education is given to our students so they can perform, educate and empower themselves in a peaceful environments.”

Following the march which was attended by over 4000 students, Mrs. Liburd-Willet officially launched the implementation of Project PURPLE school based action plan.