21 persons certified as health and family life education trainers

ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, September 14th, 2011  – 21 teachers and guidance counsellors are now certified Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) trainers following a three-day workshop hosted by the Ministry of Health and Social Development, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Department for International Development (DFID).

Training facilitator and National AIDS Programme Coordinator, Mrs. Noelene Levons-Clarke stated, “The goal of this training was to strengthen the capacity of the Virgin Islands to deliver and manage a state of the art, country-specific HFLE programme in the primary and secondary schools by training a cohort of teachers as trainers, so that they can train their peers to deliver HFLE sessions to their students.

”In delivering remarks during the opening ceremony of the workshop, Minister for Education and Culture, Honourable Andrew Fahie thanked the participants for their willingness to teach the subject matter in their respective schools and encouraged them to ‘fall in love with their classes’.

Honourable Fahie also urged the participants to have positive thoughts about the capacity building process so that the outcome would positively impact future generations of the society.
Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Dr. Irad Potter also offered words of encouragement to the teachers and guidance counsellors.

He stated, “As teachers, you are very potent and powerful persons in the lives of our community. Children look up to teachers; parents look up to teachers; the entire community looks up to teachers, and those who look up to you will model your behaviour.”

The participants were comprised of teachers and guidance counsellors representing public and private institutions at the primary and secondary levels throughout the Virgin Islands. The workshop was held from September 5 to September 7.

The HFLE curriculum was implemented in all public secondary schools in September 2009 with a vision of reducing the negative behaviours displayed by some persons through the provision of knowledge and development of life skills necessary to cope with today’s challenges.

The CARICOM HFLE curriculum framework is being used to guide this delivery in the classroom under four thematic areas – Self and Interpersonal Relationships; Sexuality and Sexual Health; Eating and Fitness; and Managing the Environment; all of which were covered in the workshop sessions.

The framework places emphasis on the life skills aspects of the programme. It underscores the responsibility of teachers to students, and seeks to ensure that teachers and other resource persons involved in the delivery of HFLE are able to facilitate information exchange and student interaction, through the use of interactive learning and positive environments which encourage skills development.

Mrs. Levons-Clarke expressed her delight with the partnerships that facilitated the training as the DFID project comes to an end in September, and it is anticipated that the capacity building will ensure sustainability of the programme.

The Ministry of Health and Social Development endeavours to provide leadership that promotes health, social well-being and a safe environment.

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