SDA Pathfinder Clubs to be established in schools

Assistant Superintendent of police with responsibility for safety in schools, Coleridge Minto, has revealed that the Ministry of Education,Youth and Information is taking steps to allow the Seventh-day Adventist uniformed group, the Pathfinders, to establish clubs in primary and high schools across Jamaica.

The Pathfinder Clubs will support the ministry's Safe Schools Programme, which was introduced in 2004 to assist schools with behavioural and antisocial problems among students.

"Once the protocols are ironed out during a meeting with the Adventist youth leaders and the Ministry of Education in the coming week, we expect that at least five to 10 Pathfinder Clubs will be established in various schools across the island by the end of this year 2018," said Minto.

He was speaking during a service of installation for close to 1,000 young people into the various uniform groups of the Church at Camp Verley, Spring Gardens, St Catherine, on Saturday.

"The success that we have had so far with this programme (the Safe Schools Programme) can be attributed to partnerships with agencies such as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Therefore, the ministry is extending an invitation to the Adventist Church to establish Pathfinder Clubs in the national school programmes through primary and high schools," Minto added.

The Adventist Church in Jamaica and across the world has been credited with assisting young people to develop life skills and discipline through its uniformed groups.

"We are excited to partner with the ministry in sharing life-changing principles and disciplined behaviour with the youth of our country, " said Pastor Dane Fletcher, youth and chaplaincy ministries director of the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

"According to police statistics, most of the crimes that have plagued the society, especially in recent times, are perpetrated by young people, and we stand ready to support any cause that will have our young people focus their attention in more meaningful and productive ventures at the school level, where character formation takes place."

Minto maintained that the Pathfinder Club was selected by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information because of the Adventist Church's decades of service to nation building, particularly in the area of youth development.

The Adventist Church in Jamaica has more than 10,000 active uniformed members in four clubs - the Adventurer, Pathfinder, Master Guide and Senior Youths clubs - in approximately 500 of its 740 congregations islandwide.