Several educators from across Jamaica have benefited from training aimed at enabling them to equip students to be peacebuilders in the school and wider society, The Jamaica Observer reported Sunday.
The one-day Peace Symposium, hosted by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and the International University of the Caribbean (IUC), was held at the Alhambra Inn in Kingston on Thursday, March 9.
The event featured three workshops focused on peacebuilding strategies in the school space, community and home, including conflict resolution skills.
Carlinton Johnson, principal of Carron Hall High School in St. Mary, said it is important that students are engaged in measures to resolve conflicts at the earliest stage.
“If we can teach the children from an early age how to deal with conflicts and get them to be part of the process [it would help]to bring peace in the schools first, then the community and the world,” Johnson noted.
Troy Barnes, physical education teacher and coach at Clarendon College, pointed out that conflict resolution training for teachers is also important in equipping them to “find new ways to help students.”
He added that this is particularly in light of the influence of social media, which can have a negative impact on young people.
“A lot of schools have challenges with violence, and as an educator and a person who is always around students, I think I need to know more ways in which I can help to assist these students who are having these challenges,” he told JIS News.
