While the education ministry has been placing the spotlight on devotions in schools, Hindu practices such as transcendental meditation, mindfulness, and yoga have been creeping into the learning environment and are being subtly pushed by government officials.
In 2021, India’s High Commissioner to Jamaica, His Excellency Rungsung Masakui announced that he would be producing a booklet with photos depicting various yoga postures as part of efforts to raise awareness about the practice. That same year, the Commission organised several yoga sessions with the Jamaica Defence Force Cadets and primary and secondary school students. The event was endorsed by then Minister of Education Fayval Williams, who, according to JIS News, thanked the Indian High Commission for organising yoga sessions for Jamaican students.
Williams received public backlash a year later after asking school administrators to put “devotions” on pause after students at the Oberlin High School had a spiritual encounter during a general devotion at the St Andrew-based institution.
“I fully understand that we are a nation of persons who pray, but I also understand that we have a number of different religions in the society, and what is practised one way for either religion is not necessarily the same way for another. In light of what took place on Wednesday, I believe at least for the next month that we ought to be simple in what we do,” the Jamaica Observer quoted the minister telling parents.
Williams later announced that the Ministry of Education and Youth would be providing schools with draft guidelines on devotions in schools. She was shifted to the Ministry of Finance in 2024, after Dr. Nigel Clarke left the post to take up a position at the International Monetary Fund.
Prophet Andrew Harris, a former journalist who now resides in the US, has warned that switching out prayer for yoga will cause devastating results.
“In America, we are having a problem where you realise that they get prayer out of the school [and] they don’t want anything to do with God and prayer, but this is a way of bringing the devil into the school,” he said.
