“Safety starts from teaching a child to be in a safe environment. Useful knowledge is achieved through healthy schools. A good educational climate establishes important skills for students, whether in their early stages of education in school, or in their more mature and broader educational stages in university.”
These key sentences opened the dialogue between experts in educational affairs during the panel discussion entitled: “Safe Schools for a Better Future”, which was held by Al-Nahda Women’s Network at the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), in cooperation with the National Alliance for the Future of Education in Jordan (NAFE). The meeting hosted education specialist at Plan International, Sahar Matarneh, Director of School Programs at the Royal Health Awareness Society, Dr. Reem Jarrar, psychological counselor Kholoud Rafaia, and the Head of the Educational counselling Department at the Ministry of Education, Bassam Al-Habahba. The discussion was moderated with the participants by the Education Program Advisor at (ARDD), Dr. Aseel Shawareb.
In the meeting, which comes within the framework of the project: “Investing in the Future: Improving the Livelihoods and Education of Minority Refugee Groups within Society in Jordan”, in cooperation with Vision Hope International, and with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Matarneh stressed the importance of sustaining awareness and training programs in the Ministry of Education, especially since there have already been training programs for teachers related to the protection and safety of children. (For example: Arts in Child Protection from Abuse, Sound Conflict Resolution Program, and Foundations of Democracy for the first three grades).
The expert pointed out that safety in schools is achieved by taking into account the emotional, social, and moral development of children, supporting positive behaviors, and enhancing their confidence, noting that our educational system needs programs to train teachers on how to “build trust” in students with the help of parents.
The expert pointed out that safety in schools is achieved by taking into account the emotional, social, and moral development of children, supporting positive behaviors, and boosting their confidence, noting that our educational system needs programs to train teachers on how to “build trust” for students with the help of parents.
On the initiatives of the Royal Health Awareness Society, Jarrar said: “The Society, which was established in 2005 under the directives of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, aims to increase health awareness and enable the local community to adopt healthy behaviors, as it implements development programs to meet the needs of the local community and national health priorities, especially the National Accreditation Program for Healthy Schools, the Think First Program, Youth for Health, the Immunization Initiative to protect young people from risky behaviors and addiction, and other programs that work to consolidate the principles of Preventive health.
According to her, healthy schools mean the geographical location of the school, available infrastructure such as lighting, playgrounds, and laboratories. etc., explaining that the association, in cooperation with several parties, works to educate students about personal skills related to public health and safety, and conduct periodic examinations for them, which emphasizes the importance of activating the role of school health.
On the social side, counselor Kholoud Rafaia said that the concept of safety is very broad and can be viewed from multiple angles, and that it is not a luxury but a need, warning that abuse and discrimination affect the academic achievement of students, which requires, according to her, qualifying the teachers and enabling them to teach using modern methods in education, and strengthening the teacher’s relationship with the parents, and the student’s relationship with the supervisors and the school administration.
Regarding the role of the Ministry of Education in this context, Al-Habahba stressed the need to strengthen the relationship between academic and educational institutions at the level of studying, and enriching the complementary relationship between the counselor and the teacher, while organizing training courses aimed at providing counselors and teachers with knowledge and skills that would achieve the required cooperation within the school in a way that is in the interest of the student, as well as providing appropriate standards to clarify and control the foundations of the complementary relationship between the counselor, teacher, principal and parents, indicating that the Kingdom contains 8 thousand schools, as well as around 10,000 school counselors and about 150,000 teachers.
In addition, various discussions took place among the participants in the session, which concluded that we need to focus on psychosocial support for children, work with students who drop out of school, provide social, moral, and emotional development programs, promote innovation, develop a national strategy for education in cooperation with all sectors, and raise the status of teachers in general and raise their morale for the success of the inclusive education system in schools and universities. Also, in order to be a safe environment, the school must be attractive and motivating, spread awareness messages to parents, and focus on the education of refugees and the underprivileged.
