Over 900 teachers who are Child Protection Officers in their respective schools are expected to undergo training.
This follows the launching of the online training for Child Protection Officers by the Permanent Secretary for Education, Heritage & Arts, Dr. Anjeela Jokhan
Dr. Jokhan said, “The Ministry is fully committed towards the re-opening of schools and taking a proactive approach by training Child Protection Officers and District Education Officers to equip them to deliver psychosocial support services and manage student behavior when students return to school”.
“The closure of schools due to the pandemic would have affected many children as they have been away from structured learning for over six months. School closure has contributed to increased anxiety and loneliness in young people. Child stress, sadness, frustration, indiscipline, and hyperactivity are also expected to be prevalent and to deal with these; the teachers need to be fully prepared.”
The Child Protection Officers and District Education Officers will then work together to train primary and secondary teachers on how to take better care of their students once they have been trained. With the theme “Putting Children First”, the training will be conducted in batches over the next 2 months, starting with secondary schools.
The Permanent Secretary thanked the development partners, UNICEF and the Fiji Education Programme that have collaborated with Substance Abuse Advisory Council to deliver this timely training.
Both, UNICEF and Fiji Education Programme provide regular support to Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts for the delivery of education services to all Fijian students.
This training will have four key areas; Introduction to Child Protection, Child Protection Referrals and Pathways, Positive Behaviour Management Systems and Psychological First Aid/Basic Counseling Skills, and at the end of the training it is expected that every school will have a trained Child Protection Officer who can attend to students as and when required, and train other teachers within their schools.
The Permanent Secretary assures parents that the Ministry will do its best to ensure that children will be well supported with timely advice, coaching and guidance by trained teachers so that students transit back into structured teaching and learning as soon as possible.