The Ministry of Education said it is providing support for its staff and students who may be facing mounting mental pressures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Acting Deputy Director of Education E Jonah Greene said a psychosocial program is being put in place for teachers, students, administrators, ancillary staff and parent coordinators.
“We have our guidance counsellors who will be there for those persons who need somebody to talk to”, she said.
“With reference to our teachers, for the past two weeks, we would have started this week, we have a two-week psychosocial support, remotely, that has been going on every Tuesday and Thursday”, Greene revealed, adding “teachers who would like to be part of it, who would just like to talk and express themselves and say these are some of the issues I’m having, I need your support and sometimes people just want to talk through what is going on.”
Greene said the Ministry of Education is also working with the Ministry of Health to provide one-on-one support.
“There are some persons that do not want to talk in groups or sometimes there are individuals who do not want to speak to your guidance counsellor, who is your colleague on the compound. The Mental Health arm of the Ministry of Health, through Dr. Terri-Ann Joseph, she would have contacted me and said to me listen, we are putting things in place for individuals who would like to have a one-on-one”, Greene explained.
The Acting Deputy Director said, “all the teacher has to do is to say to the Principal I would like to have that service and the principal will contact Dr. Joseph, who is going to do whatever is necessary to provide that additional support for teachers.”
“Dr. Joseph is also saying to me that if there are students that will like to have that service as well, she will make herself available to ensure that we provide that service”, she added.
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Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Rahm Emanuel, Former Mayor of Chicago and Chief of Staff to President Obama!
This is the time for creative and proactive planning to assist the many vendors who eke out a living in the subsistence economy peddling their goods and services around the secondary schools compounds and campuses of higher education on the Rock!
De Vendors at Da Market say: Pay Attention! “Wealth creation and reduction of social inequality through greater and more affordable access, efficient and effective alignment with society and economy, and enhanced agility in pursuit of opportunities.” – UWI Strategy 2017- 2022!
As GoAB shifts into a higher gear to out perform “Rona,” going from “Entrepreneurial Socialism” to “Empowerment Capitalism,” the vendors will thrive when they are encouraged to engage cooperatively with the secondary and higher education institutions! History has shown that inclusive economic policies developed by past governments, which have been dedicated to creating a level playing field, enforcing property rights, a clean, healthy and safe environment, liberty, equality and fraternity, peace, order and good governance, have successfully developed a cohesive political, economic, socio-cultural and sustainable ecological milieu for the People of African Descent!
Principals and their administrations of secondary schools with help from MoEST should collaboratively engage with the vendors who ply their businesses on the periphery of the school plants to find accommodations on and within their boundaries where they can ensure safety, good hygiene, healthy eating habits and orderly governance!
For Higher Education, the principal of “Town and Gown Collaborations” must be embraced by Higher Education and the Communities in which Antigua State College and UWI Five Islands Campuses are located! Early this year, this mere voice in the wilderness urged that the developing situation at the UWI Five Islands Campus be given a high priority before it festered and became septic! The leadership of the two institutions, given their Strategic Imperatives must harness their resources and create partnerships with the vendors and the Villages to produce resultant quality campus aesthetics, student faculty and staff customer satisfaction, business success for the vendors and educational institutions which embrace stakeholder social, environmental and financial values to engender trust not only for the institutions but also GoAB!
LEST WE REMEMBER!
The largest Private Institution of Higher Education on the Rock has skillfully navigated this economic and socio-cultural space!
“Whenever a person delineates a cultural boundary around a particular cultural space in human time, this is called marking. … we must be prepared to act upon our interpretation of what is in the best interest of black people, that is, black people as an historically oppressed population. This is the fundamental necessity for advancing the political process.” – Dr. Molefi Asante, Afrocentricity, The Theory of Social Change!
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