In an effort to tackle child abuse and violence in schools, the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), in partnership with the Guyana Red Cross Society, will be training special needs teachers on its “Be Safe” initiative.
More than 15 of these teachers will be trained, over the next six weeks, on child abuse prevention strategies. Coordinator of the Be Safe programme, Shanntel Maloney, told Guyana Times International on June 29 that the training has attracted teachers and caregivers from various special schools in Georgetown and other parts of the country.
Volunteer Marcelle George from Guyana Red Cross hosting the workshop with attendees on either side of her
The programme is focused on educating teachers, who will in turn teach their pupils how to be safe from violence, and identify what is an appropriate from an inappropriate touch, among other issues related to all forms of abuse.
“We are working with parents on how we can give them information on how to handle their children who behave badly. We hope that these special needs teachers can use the material to empower these children in the classrooms, and teach them to prevent themselves from becoming victims of all sorts of abuse,” Maloney noted.
According to her, while the Red Cross has been working with special needs schools, the training has been conducted in other schools across the ten administrative regions. The training is, however, not limited to teachers, but includes parents and community members. Questioned whether she believed the training will, in some way, have an impact on children through their teachers, she said she believes it will create a way for something positive to happen. “I hope so, because this programme is about preventing abuse before it happens … so we are not waiting for children to get abused.”
Marcelle George, a volunteer from the Guyana Red Cross Society, said the programme will help reduce violence, not only in schools but in the society at large. “If you look around in our society, children (and) adults are behaving in ways that are not good for society, as we would say; so we think this would help them in order to be better people.”
The Red Cross Society and NCERD decided to train these teachers, since children with special needs are more vulnerable to violence and abuse. The programme also hopes to teach alternative ways of disciplining children.
The programme will also seek to address how teachers could help to lower the escalating violence which continues to plague several schools countrywide, and will look at creating a safer atmosphere among students.
