At least 20, 000 students from some 112 primary schools are expected to be mobilised for the protest demonstration which will have its climax at the sprawlingQueen's Park Savannah, according to a report in yesterday's "Sunday Guardian".

The mass protest, to be joined by teachers, parents and members of the general public, has been organised to allow expressions of outrage over criminals now extending their kidnappings for ransom to include children, with two of them being abducted within days of each other last week.

In Guyana, parents and school children in the East Coast village of Strathspey

staged a protest march last week denouncing kidnappings, robberies and other criminal

activities by armed men who, they say, the security forces, have been failing to apprehend.

Activity Co-ordinator of the Sports Council for Port-of-Spain, Kelvin Nancoo, one of the organisers of the march by school children planned for Friday in the capital, said that they have obtained the cooperation of the police for the occasion and that cops would be out on foot patrol and motorbikes.

He said that teachers and parents were becoming increasingly alarmed over the rising incidence of crime, not only by criminals but also those taking place within the school system where "the influence of external forces" was having a negative impact.