Through the promotion of Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) in the public school system, social ills are expected to be significantly reduced. At least this is the notion being touted by the Region Four Education Department even as the new school term begins.
Moreover, the Education Department has taken steps to further enhance the HFLE skills of several of its teachers who are tasked with delivering the HFLE programme within schools across the education district.
The effort in this regard saw the Department recently moving to conduct a one day training session which targeted 57 of the HFLE educators drawn from all of the secondary schools within Region Four. The training dealt with a number of issues, while it sought to better inform teachers on how to effectively handle issues, thus ensuring that they are properly addressed and/or resolved.
Spearheading the training session was Ms. Colleen King-Cameron, Coordinator of the Education Ministry’s HFLE programme. Her efforts were complemented by Ms. Esther Utoh of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) who facilitated the training session which was held under the theme, ‘Strengthening HFLE for youth empowerment”.
The key officials pointed out that such training is pivotally important in enhancing teachers’ knowledge and skills given the recognition that there continues to be an increase in social ills facing several school aged children today. They, moreover, noted that such training would pave the way for the reduction of some of the challenges and difficulties that the teaching staff and students are confronted with at schools. With measures in place to tackle the glaring dilemma, it is expected that there will be a more conducive environment for learning among the students.
Moreover, the objectives were to provide participants with an overview of the nature and goals of HFLE, to provide the opportunity for them to practice to teach the common curriculum lessons along with other teachers using useful strategies and tips in the process. She further noted that the training was geared towards assisting the participants in developing competence in equipping students with the necessary skills to make decisions and to deal with life dilemmas using common sense. The training session also sought to enhance the participants’ standard of delivering lessons in life skills.
