More teachers to deliver life skills teaching in schools

Over the next three years, 126 teachers from secondary schools will be trained in life skills education to equip them with the relevant knowledge to give their students additional support to cope with the challenges they face.

The first of the training sessions started on Monday at the Hilton Resort, with 42 teachers, two from each secondary school. The training is being provided through a framework agreement, signed in November 2020 between the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training and Supreme Counselling for Personal Development. The training is being supported by the Maria Holder Memorial Trust.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Supreme Counselling, Shawn Clarke, shared during the opening ceremony of the five-day session, that the training will present participants with the tools to adequately and effectively conduct sessions with several students using a curriculum aimed at changing the conversation around the purpose of life skills education and ensuring that children remain at the centre of every initiative.

He said, the training also speaks to the effective delivery of the programmes conducted by Supreme Counselling in secondary schools, including the Self-Development and Awareness (Life skills) programme, designed to present participants with the tools to assist in developing young peoples’ abilities and motivations to make use of all types of information.

“The approach, therefore, will be interactive, using role-plays, games, puzzles, group discussions, and a variety of other teaching techniques to keep the participant wholly involved in the sessions. The sessions will be opened to all students during their HFLE [Health and Family Life Education] periods in the respective schools. Students who display severe problematic behaviours or those seemingly in need of a deeper intervention would then be identified by the newly-trained teachers and referred to Supreme Counselling for Personal Development.

“All parents, along with their children, will then be invited to attend an intensive clinical interview at which time they will sit with a psychologist to ascertain very pertinent and vital information.

“This information will include family history, factors of their home environment, complications at birth and things of that nature. The information will then be shared with the senior psychologist within the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, “Clarke explained.

Deputy Chief Education Officer Joy Adamson, who delivered the feature address at the opening ceremony, said the initiative is a timely collaboration as the ministry seeks to increase the number of teachers in schools who are trained to meaningfully build life skills in students.

Adamson noted that students need to be equipped with life skills to help them to better cope with the challenges they will face in an ever-changing environment. This, she said, included coping with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Along with academic aptitude, students require a set of skills which we call life skills. To cope with the evolving global environment, they need therefore to be taught how to make good decisions, communicate effectively, solve problems, think critically and creatively, to recognize the impact of their actions, take responsibility for their actions, therefore make wise choices and cultivate positive interpersonal relationships and self-confidence strategies,” Adamson said.
anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb