La Misère launches Listening School project |06 February 2016

The La Misère community at large is being encouraged to give a hand in keeping children safe through the Listening School programme at La Misère school.

The programme was launched under the National Council for Children (NCC) protective behaviour campaign theme for this year ‘We all have the right to feel safe at all times’.

The Minister for Education Macsuzy Mondon launched the programme yesterday at the La Misère chapel in the presence of members of the NCC, key education officials, parents, management and staff members of the school, with its pupils.

She said the objective of the project is to explore the roles and responsibilities of all the supporting agents and it is aimed at developing strategies that can be put in place so that together we can build a caring, understanding and non-violent culture.

“The project rightly named the ‘Listening School’ because the focus is on listening to the voices of others. The school will have to adopt good communication skills at all levels to be able to show understanding, to react and intervene to address the concerns and resolve possible conflicts,” she said.

The ceremony kicked off with a reflection from the parish priest Father Landry.

This all started for La Misère school when representatives from the Ministry of Education and NCC visited the school early in 2015 and the idea of implementing the project was proposed to the management team and members of staff.

In August 2015 surveys were conducted by officials of NCC and the ministry with parents, members of staff and pupils to gauge their views on different aspects of the school.

Some pertinent issues raised included incidences of bullying, concern over the physical appearance and certain unsafe areas of the school for pupils, the way complaints from parents were dealt with, the opportunities being offered to their children and their safety at school whereas members of staff expressed the sentiment to be more involved in decision-making just to mention a few.

The head teacher, Fatma Bibi, said the project is the platform which will allow for these concerns to be addressed so that all members of the school community will feel safe, supported, respected, valued informed an empowered.

She is urging all parents and the community to endorse and support this initiative.

“If we want to see real change in our school that will have a positive effect on our pupils we need to be committed and to work together as a team. Together we can achieve greatness. Remember, a healthy school is a listening school,” she said.

For the implementation of this project three committees have been set up under the steering committee which includes the Protective Behaviour committee, the Listening School committee and the Anti-Bullying committee.

These three committees are made up of two teachers, two parents, two pupils and a school management member.

The programme was first piloted at the Cascade school 10 years ago and significantly improved the school’s child friendly image and positively impacted on school discipline as well as in enhancing teachers’ and parents’ listening skills and  developed  children’s skills in speaking out and staying safe.

At that time the head teacher of the school was Cyril Pillay who is now the director for primary schools.

During the ceremony Mr Pillay shared the Cascade primary school experience after the programme was implemented in 2003. In 2004 the school had achieved the full status of the Listening School project

“The whole school community felt safe, supportive and empowered,” said Mr Pillay.

The pupils kept the guests entertained with songs and poems fitted for the occasion such as ‘Donn mwan lanmen pous mon bato’, Ekout nou plis’ and ‘Ecouter les enfants’.