Every Child Guyana/ ChildLinK in collaboration with the UN-funded En-hanced Public Trust, Security and Inclusion programme on Tuesday launched “Youth Vision” an initiative aimed at reducing the level of violence in secondary schools.
“Youth Vision’s main objective is (that) by March 2011, through empowerment, advocacy and direct support, young people exposed to violence, abuse or other vulnerabilities in five high schools in Georgetown will benefit from a safer school environment free from violence,” Samantha Austin, Project Coordinator of ChildLinK explained at a simple ceremony held at Tutorial High.
The five high schools that the one year initiative will be introduced to are Tutorial High, Dolphin Secondary, St Mary’s Secondary, St Winifred’s Secondary and Houston Secondary. Two thousand in- school youth, 500 parents and teachers from the schools will be involved.
Austin said that ChildLinK has done a similar initiative with these five schools previously. “This is a continuation of our work with a new partner and added components,” she said.
Explaining how Youth Vision functions, Austin said that 25 youth advocates and 100 mentors will be based in each of the five targeted schools. They were trained over a three-month period and their training included an “understanding of their roles and responsibilities, basic communication skills and conflict resolution techniques,” Austin said.
Further, she said that the advocates and mentors will be supported by three counsellors and two UNDP volunteers and will be identified by badges.
The mentors and advocates will work one on one with their peers “sensitising them on child rights and child protection, encouraging the stand for non-violence and pointing them in the right direction”. The trained councillors meanwhile, Austin said, will work along with guidance counsellors and welfare officers “to provide psychological support to youth…counsellors are helping youth using restorative and participatory mediums to offload and work towards positive outcomes both at school and home”.
Also trained as part of the Youth Vision initiative were 146 parents. They were part of a three-month Parent Skills education training. “Parents were asked to examine their parenting styles and draw parallels between their early childhood experiences and the way they parent today,” Austin said.
The teachers’ role is to create child friendly classrooms “by using restorative and developmental approaches to supporting youth to receive quality education”.
“Overall ChildLinK holds the firm view that violence is a learned behaviour and through the Youth Vision initiative we hope to support youths, parents and teachers to unlearn this behaviour and take a stand for non-violence,” Austin stressed.
Meanwhile, head of the UNDP’s Enhanced Public Trust, Security and Inclusion programme, Trevor Clark said that he was “happy to see good collaboration” between the two entities and called for more. He added that “as we move forward you’re going see more and more programmes of this type hit the grounds especially in schools”. Clark added that he has been working “aggressively” over the last year with the Ministry of Education.
And Minister of Education Shaik Baksh also called for more partnership in education. “This partnership with NGOs, international organisations is the only way we can achieve success in Guyana,” the Minister told the auditorium of teachers, students and parents from the five schools.
He added that he was “glad” that parents and teachers will be actively involved in this initiative. Commen-ding the parents for their involvement, Baksh told them that the home has a key role to play in bringing about the true potential of the students. And to the teachers theirs was a critical role of moulding the child.
However, he admitted that the teachers needed help. The minister stated that guidance teachers and counsellors have been placed at targeted schools, including Tutorial, to assist teachers in their role.
While the minister admits that violence in schools is a serious issue he said that most times it is sensationalised in the media. “I’m happy to report that over the last couple of months incidents of violence and unacceptable behaviour have declined,” Baksh declared.
Baksh admonished the students to “take on your new roles with enthusiasm and there can be great success in what we are doing.”
Also at the launch of the Youth Vision initiative, trophies were handed out to the students who participated in an essay and art competition in support of the education month theme. The winning art piece will be used as a poster by ChildLinK.
The competition was held among the five schools and was coordinated by Youth Vision. Tutorial High won the art competition while St Winifred’s Secondary won the essay competition. Trophies were also handed out for the top three essays from each of the schools that participated.
