A student’s life in a day is divided into three segments. The first eight hours is used for sleep, the second eight hours for school and the third can be considered spare time.
Apart from sleeping, students spend most of their time in school and that is why, in my opinion, teachers play an important role in the life of every student.
Indeed their primary role is to ensure the curriculum is completed and students do well in their examinations. But how can a student focus well in school if some personal problem continues to distract their attention.
For many, and I can testify to this, the school has always been my place of refuge. From all the hardships and problems faced at home back then I was blessed to have gone through primary and secondary schools where teachers understood my situation and gave me the best support and care.
So to the many teachers who go out of their way to help and assist these troubled students, I take my hat off for you all.
Under the Ministry of Education every teacher is being paid 20 hours which is to be used as their community awareness programs. The purpose of this is for teachers to visit families of their students and talk about progress, performance and areas of improvement.
In a recent tour to Namosi, teachers of Wainimakutu Primary and Secondary schools were preparing for a four-hour hike to get to the parents of students of Nasava and Nasauvere villages in the upper reaches of the Wainimala River in Naitasiri.
If they can endure going through the rugged terrain to get to the district of Noemalu in Naitasiri, then all parents should be visited.
The National Substance Abuse Advisory Council, a statutory body under the Ministry of Education, conducts training of trainers program for teachers. The training is so unique that it helps teachers assist students who have personal problems.
The content of the program include social health issues, teenage pregnancy, peer pressure, NCDs and gender-based violence.
Under the program, teachers are taught on the important roles they play and how they can assist troubled students. After all, the school is like a second home to the students.
“Some students when they come from home to school, they face a lot of issues and if the school does not provide a conducive environment where love and care exist, then the school is not really fulfilling one of its important roles and that is how to educated a child holistically, which is their dream,” NSAAC recently stated.
“On top of that we also include parenting skills training, the reason is when they go out in their CAPS (community awareness programs) meeting they can at least assist our parents in some of their parenting skills at home, in some cases, both parents are working, or only one is working, some of them they really do not know how to look after their kids.
“Because we know basic counselling requires special training and skills, and that’s the very thing we try and help them do is to identify changes, which could mean the students are facing problems and they need to address them and get close to them and how they can go down to their level so they can win their trust of the kids. Only then can the students open up and share their problems to the teachers.
“We often emphasise the importance of building bridges with students. Sometimes they always see them as teachers, so there is always a barrier, so a bridge needs to be built so that students when they face any problem they can just easily come across and share their problem with their teachers.”
How can a teacher know a student is in trouble?
1. A drop in academic performance,
2. A sudden change in friends.
3. Time of arrival, absenteeism or being late after being punctual.
4. Grooming; an unkempt student may be a sign of some deeper problem.
