Over 40 teachers drawn from schools along the East Coast Demerara yesterday began psychosocial and support training, which will enable them to provide this when necessary to their charges.
According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release, the workshop aims at training teachers to become first responders for children who are affected by traumatic situations.
Declaring the workshop open yesterday at the Ocean View Convention Centre, Minister within the Ministry of Education Dr Desrey Fox said the decision to conduct the training was taken after the Lusignan incident in January, in which gunmen slaughtered 11 people. Teachers and students were traumatized.
The Ministry of Education in collaboration with the University of Guyana (UG), the Ministry of Health the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is hosting the three-day workshop for teachers.
Barbara Thomas-Holder, representative of the Sociology Department at UG, said the department will hold five such workshops in Regions Four and Seven to build the capacity of teachers in identifying and dealing with students who suffer as a result of violence or crisis.
