Teachers of some schools within the central and the western divisions are undergoing training and workshops on basic counseling skills.
The Ministry of Education has come up with this initiative to assist teachers in the teaching and learning process in classrooms as well as behavior management of students.
“When students are psychologically and mentally in tune in classrooms, there will be effective teaching and learning. Moreover , teachers and students will need to be focused and with proper classroom etiquette, there should be improvement in academic performance and achievement,” the Minister for Education, Mr Filipe Bole said.
“Teachers are taught the principle goals of helping, which include problem finding and opportunity finding. These will enable teachers to help students manage their problems in living more effectively and develop unused or underused opportunities. Teachers are also taught stages of the helping model whereby students can turn decisions into problem managing action.”
Mr Bole said the very basic was the sitting positions and the posture to be adopted when attending to students have also been imparted to teachers.
“It is hoped that with these extra skills in counseling, teachers should be able to manage students under their charge more effectively and teaching and learning will be taken to a higher level,” the minister added.
Since May 2010 to February 2011, 18 secondary and primary schools with 440 teachers have undergone workshops on basic counseling skills.