Ministry To Implementation Positive Behaviour Management practices in the nation’s schools

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Director of Education Clare Browne

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology-Antigua and Barbuda is moving ahead with work towards making the implementation of Positive Behaviour Management (PBM) practices a reality in the nation’s schools.

A working session that included students, principals, teachers, counsellors and the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers was held this week. Participants were updated about benchmarks schools have made since the observance of PBM Day on 21st of February 2019, which include the establishment of school expectations and codes of behaviour for various settings on the school compound, the setting up of PBM teams and a review of PBM strategies which were shared with schools on PBM Day.

According to officials, several schools have completed at least 75% of the benchmarks.

Director of Education, Clare Browne, in making brief remarks made a clarion call for all stakeholders to put their hands and voices together to make PBM implementation in schools a success since ultimately, students will be the beneficiaries. Education Officer-Guidance Counselling and Health and Family Life Education, Andrea Airall in pointing out how PBM is interrelated with various initiatives of the Ministry, encouraged participants to view the programme as a structure, a system, a framework and a skill-set not only for school but for life. Early Childhood Education Officer-Embler Spencer emphasized the critical importance of not just using PBM to curb bad or undesirable behaviours but instead, using it to promote good behaviour, in the first place.

The working session also heard from Alma Jenkins-Acosta, a UNICEF Representative and Desiree Antonio- Education Officer and CFS Focal Point, who sought agreement from the body for a cross section of persons to be part of a National PBM Action Group that will work on specific tasks to include: training in PBM, developing PBM materials, and monitoring and evaluation of PBM.

PBM is an approach to discipline that focuses on guiding students’ behavior, while paying attention to their emotional and psychological needs.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. My way of helping…..

    Children should be taught how to sit still and be quiet without being prompted to do so. (Generally what is considered as normal child like behavior is actually abnormal)

    Children should be taught how to focus. (It is a skill not an automatic occurrence, most adults today cannot focus for more than 5 to 10 seconds scientifically proven)

    We are copying concepts from North America as if the concepts are working there. There is a world outside of USA.

    • You are really out of the Stone Age with your thinking. In my days there was bullying too. And I admit I have bullied some guys that did not act like boys. But as kids you just do not know better. As I grow up I saw that what I did was wrong. And I can teach other bullies now that it is not right. But the problem is deeper. Why does one bullies? It is something about being Macho. Why is it you pick on someone whom you think and know cannot stand up against you. I thought my children not to fight. The complete opposite that I was. But when one day my son got in a fight and didn’t fight back I was outraged. I couldn’t believe my son let someone slap him and he did nothing. But that is what I did in my youth. I slap other boys knowing they couldn’t dare to hit back. And those that dare we had a good fight. Sometime you bully because you try to impress the girls or you want to guys to see you as a leader. fierce and feared. I grew up under the law of the jungle. The strongest will survive. I learned that that was not the way in the developed world when I went to Europe. It was the law of the smartest. We need to hire more councilors at schools and introduce new subject in the school curriculum about these social ills. whether it is bullying or fighting or even littering. We need to change the behavior of our children big time. The old ones you have already lost. As the saying goes, you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. But by teaching the younger ones good behavior you will safe the next generation of Antiguans and Barbudans. And believe me this ‘Social behavior’ is gonna be with us for ever. We need to constantly form our young minds to think differently than we did. I did it with my children. None of them turned out to be bullies and fighters like I did, and I am very proud of them. As they are grown men and women now and have their children I know they teach them well too. One thing I must admit, I cannot agree with them on Same Sex Marriage.

      • @Sideline

        Concepts that worked has been replaced with concepts that has proven not to work.

        We have moved away from our way of thinking and adopted Westerner’s style as if it is the best thing.

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