Counselling team ‘willing and ready’

Head of Supreme Counselling for Personal Development Shawn Clarke says that at least two secondary schools enrolled in his programme were administered the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) controversial survey last week.

And he noted that while he has yet to be asked by the Ministry of Education to lend his expertise in the matter, his team stands “willing and ready” if called upon.

Clarke said that so far, he was unaware that any of his students had expressed any forms of distress after the survey. He explained that this may not be a true reflection of the situation because the reality is, the parents may not necessarily be “as aware as other parents would be”.

His comments came several hours after parent advocate Paula-Anne Moore reminded listeners on Starcom Network’s Sunday Down to Brass Tacks call-in programme that the discussion around the contentious survey, which was originally called a computer science test, should be centred on the impact it has on the children and parents.

On the same show, Chief Education Officer Ramona Archer-Bradshaw admitted that a two-hour-long test similar to the October 3 exercise that quizzed pre-teens about their sexuality, gender identity, substance use and abuse as well as personal information about their parents, was administered in June this year.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the organisation’s welcome ceremony for new students and their parents and guardians held at the Hilton Barbados Resort, Needham’s Point, St. Michael on Sunday, Clarke also addressed the psychological ramifications such a survey could have on the 11-year-olds involved.

“From what I understand there were some questions on the questionnaire that could have a psychological impact on the children and so we have to be very careful about that. Especially if you are introducing children to something they have never heard about or something that they are seeing for the first time on paper and this stranger or strangers are asking me about my sexuality….

“Or, these strangers are asking me about the closeness or how closely-knit my family is, it can have a psychological impact on the children. As I said before, we are here to assist in that regard if we are called upon,” he said.

Moore, the coordinator of the Group of Concerned Parents, believed that many of the children and their parents were unaware of their rights to consent or object in such a situation. (KC)