Teachers across Montserrat’s primary and secondary schools were engaged in a Child Online Protection Workshop last Friday.
The programme, sponsored by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean states (OECS) and UNICEF, is taking place in each of the OECS states.
This workshop was co-facilitated by guidance counselor at the Montserrat Secondary School Vandina St. Helaire, and education transformation project manager with the Ministry of Education, Hyacith Bramble-Browne.
In a conversation with ZJB News, St. Helaire said, “the reason for conducting these workshops is because across the region, we’re in a situation where our children are online and they’re not safe. So, what the workshop is designed to do is to educate and also basically provide us with the tools as educators to basically support our children when they do go online. Remember we’re in the age of technology that we want our children to be safe and that is basically what the workshop is about.”
Participating teacher Inez Daley-Knights, who teaches health, integrated science, and biology at the Montserrat Secondary School, highlighted the necessity of the workshop to prepare teachers to help students in a vulnerable situation.
She said “the workshop has prepared us to help students who are somehow getting entangled online in a way that not only they’re becoming addicted, but some have been led astray into situations that can harm them in many ways, including sexually. It is very important for us as teachers to have knowledge regarding this topic because we need to be prepared for when students share things with us that demonstrate to us that they’re in a compromising position.
Senior social worker at the social services department, Teshawn Matthews, who also participated in the workshop, spoke on the timeliness of the workshop, adding that it was a “very timely workshop because even in our caseloads, we have been seeing an escalation around social media with our young people and how it is being used and the disadvantages added to that.”
The workshop was co-facilitated by Mrs. Hyacinth Bramble-Brown.