Focus on students’ mental health – Psychologist

Psychologist Shawn Clarke fully supports the Ministry of Education’s decision to resume face-to-face classes on February 21, but wants officials to focus on students’ mental health along with the regular curriculum.

Clarke told Barbados TODAY that although he has not conducted any official research, he has received many complaints about children struggling to cope with the online school setting they were thrown into two years ago at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chief executive officer of Supreme Counselling for Personal Development said students were eager to return to the physical school plant so they could socialise with their peers and teachers.

“Online worked for some of our students, but from what I am hearing across the length and breadth of Barbados – and I don’t have any statistics or no scientific evidence to this – you have fewer students benefiting from online school than the majority,” he said.

“So, I support this move [returning to school] 100 per cent and I have full confidence that the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training would have done its homework in terms of working with the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

“I am quite sure that no one will intentionally put our students in the line of fire. I think that everything is being done to ensure that this is done as securely as possible and we need now to give our young people that opportunity to return to school,” Clarke added.

The psychologist said while some stakeholders are concerned about the return to face-to-face classes amidst the spike in COVID-19 cases, he questioned when the time would be right.

“We have to take into consideration that our children have been away from face-to-face school, I think upward to two years and that is a long time to be away,” he said.

Clarke stressed that school is not only about academics, but is also a place where students learn how to socialize, including through communicating with and getting along with their peers.

He said this is why it is important that when schools reopen their doors, emphasis is placed on teaching students life skills, conflict resolution, critical thinking, and anger management, in addition to building their self-esteem and showing them how to manage their mental health.

“You have students who would have sat the 11-plus examination two years ago and they have not had the experience of entering the gate of a secondary school. It means that when they return to school, it will be almost like a new experience and they now have to go through the horror of entering secondary school for the first time,” Clarke pointed out.

“What about those young persons who would have been 13, 14, 15 years-old when we had to go to virtual learning? They are now at the age of finishing secondary school and have already finished. There are students who have never entered a school because they started school at a time when teaching is being done online”. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb