A 3-day training program on ‘Peace Education, Child Safeguarding and Psychosocial First Aid’ was organized by child rights organization – Save the Children- in collaboration with the Directorate of School Education, Kashmir in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
Save the Children which is currently working on embedding the Peace Education as part of the school curriculum, has developed a “Manual on Peace Education with the intent to promote and develop relevant training content on Peace Education for the teachers of the J&K, so that a carder of resource person is developed in the education system to take it to the next level.”
Near about 30 Master Trainers participated from the Education Department, including the representatives from State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), District Institute of Education and Trainings (DIETs) who were trained on Peace Education, Child Safeguarding and Psycho-social First Aid for children.
During the program, deliberations were held on existing challenges hindering the peaceful atmosphere in schools and ensuring school as a zone of peace which is free from violence of all forms including corporal punishments.
During the three days training program, the participants shared their experiences and also came up with the set of suggestions to ensure that safeguarding of children is prioritized in totality.
State Head JKSPO, Save the Children, Mohammad Sharif Bhat while referring to the objective of the program, said that the organization is working through 3-tier approach while building capacities of teachers, mobilizing community based structures and reaching out to children directly through the intervention.
“The project seeks to improve educational, social, and government protection by mobilizing communities to spearhead child protection awareness and to achieve ultimate goal of Happy Childhood. It targets to strengthen the peace building programme in the schools and establish a child protection mechanism in schools.
Terming the program as the stepping stone for creating a peaceful environment in schools, the participants pressed for further engagement in such programs to improve and enhance the capacity of human resources in the education department so that preventive and curative measures are put in place in each and every school to make them as safe zones for children.
“The post Covid19 scenario in schools has been very challenging, particularly for teachers. It has heavily affected the mental setup of both – students and the teachers. It has made the relevance of this training ever important. After going through this training, I find myself in a position to better deal with extraordinary situations in classrooms,” Urfana Amin, one of the Master Trainers said.
Adding that there was need for further trainings and workshops for wider mobilization, she said: “we need to ensure perfect monitoring mechanism in a collaborative manner in the department”.