Teachers have been told to prepare themselves because there will be behavioural changes in children because of their mental health being severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts Premila Kumar highlighted this issue while visiting schools in some parts of Nausori yesterday.
“Eight months is a very long time to close a school and you can imagine what happened in that eight months when kids are at home,” she said.
“They have been to school and obviously at home they have all the freedom in the world, they eat whenever they like at whatever time, they sleep whenever they like, maybe playing videos on their computer and not printing out their books, that’s what is expected.
“I know you have worked extremely hard during the lockdown.”
She labelled teachers “the COVID-19 warriors” for working tirelessly during this pandemic.
She said some children experienced the realities of what their parents faced during this pandemic.
“We have prepared ourselves for any situation. Teachers have been trained as well on psycho-social support on how they are going to assist a child.”
She said they had trained personnel on the ground to provide any psychological support to students.
