Education Ministry moves against violence in schools

In its determined effort to reduce violence and indiscipline in schools, the Ministry of Education has paid special attention to educating families in parenting. According to an official, the Ministry has recognised that violence and indiscipline among students can be traced back to the families from which they come, and that the level of parenting in these units are normally — disturbingly low. An explanation for this phenomenon has been offered with the statement “The biological ability to produce children does not necessarily come with the knowledge and skills for bringing them up.”

One has to learn, and be taught how to rear children and manage a family. As part of its ongoing fight against this wave of lawlessness, the ministry recently hosted a programme titled “Parent Education,” and which formed an arm of  Project Peace. One of the components of the programme in parenting was the project “Training the Trainers.” The project was co-funded by the JB Fernandes Memorial Trust, and the Ministry collaborated with the non-governmental organisation, Creative Parenting for the New Era, spearheaded by director Joan Bishop. The intention of the project was to train carefully selected personnel in parent education, who would then go back to their communities to conduct parenting education workshops for families within the community.

Trainers were selected for the project based on their community leadership skills and involvement, participation in Parent Teacher Associations, and their potential for communicating the information to other groups. In the initial process of selecting 25 trainers, two youths were chosen in view of the increasing number of teenagers who are producing children, as the occurrence of “children making children” were at staggering proportions in society. It was anticipated that with the training of subsequent batches of trainers, the parenting skills of thousands of families throughout the nation would be improved through the ripple effect.

Each trainer was taken through a course which consisted of five weekend sessions and two reinforcement and review workshops, and before completing the course, were required to draw up a well-structured programme with teaching tools and material for the workshop in their community. The Ministry’s effort to educate parents in carrying out their responsibilities to their children is being strengthened by the increase of school social workers in the student support services being offered currently. Officials are hoping that this will help to bridge the gap between the home and the school and ensure collaboration between families and the school.