Africa-Press – Mauritius. A two-day workshop on the theme ‘Reinforcing referral procedures and consolidating counselling skills for Students Care and Counselling Desk members’, was launched, this morning, at Quatre Bornes State Secondary School.
The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, the Acting Senior Chief Executive of the Ministry, Mrs M.
A. Janick Jaunbocus, and other personalities were present at the opening ceremony. The training is organised by the National Education Counselling Service, under the aegis of the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology.
The objective is to provide participants with an insight into the skills and approaches required for timely intervention and support to students, along with referral pathways where help from specialised agencies can be sought.
The Student Care and Counselling Desk, set up in State Secondary Schools with the support of volunteer educators since July 2012, is an integral part of the school system.
The purpose of the Desk is to mitigate the students’ learning, social, emotional and behavioural problems by providing a listening support service to those facing emotional, family, stress-related and other psychological issues.
At the outset, Mrs Dookun-Luchoomun commended the commitment of the educators, members of the Student Care and Counselling Desks, who have engaged themselves willingly to promote the psycho-social wellbeing of secondary school students by empowering them to identify their personal problems and find solutions.
“Mental wellbeing is an important part of children’s overall health, affecting the way they think, feel, act, relate to others, handle stress and make healthy choices,” she emphasised.
The Vice-Prime Minister thus deplored that societal ills such as violence, child abuse, drug use, bullying, including cyberbullying, were reaching alarming proportion and are not sparing Mauritian schools.
Mrs Dookun-Luchoomun talked as well of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, with the absence of social interaction that resulted in undesired state of mind and unease in some learners.
She mentioned also the diversity of expectations, sometimes unfair, from parents, peers and society at large, to which students were confronted daily.
Reiterating her Ministry’s mission for the holistic and integrated development of the youth, Mrs Dookun-Luchoomun highlighted the importance of the Desks in giving opportunity to students to confide to persons they could trust on issues related to their tensions, inner conflicts and emotions, whether suppressed or otherwise.
She announced, too, that the Ministry intended to set up Student Care and Counselling Desks in primary schools. Recalling that students spent much time in educational settings, the Education Minister was of the view that schools offered the occasion for early detection, prevention and planned interventions, and that helping young people to confront the challenges and expectations fell now on the responsibility of the education staff.
“Educators are more than imparters of knowledge as they are perceived as guides, companions, facilitators and the shoulder to lean upon,” stressed Mrs Dookun-Luchoomun, adding that she trusted the educators to play their role to the hilt.
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