Perseverance secondary school students to mentor colleagues |27 April 2018

Students from the Ile Perseverance Secondary School have since Monday been taking part in a week peer educator’s training workshop being held at the school.

The training which ends today was to impart knowledge to S2, S3 and S4 students on basic peer skills that will help them to mentor other students with difficulties at the school.

The new school, which opened its door in late January, caters for students from Perseverance, the surrounding districts of north Mahe and those from S2 classes of Belonie Secondary, which is under renovation. There are no S5 classes at the school.

With the students coming from the various communities with different cultural, social and educational background, Solange Robert, the school’s counselor, explained that the aim for organising the peer educator’s workshop training for the students relates to anti-social behaviours going on at the school and the difficulty some students are facing within the school environment.

She added that the training of the students to peer others is seen as a way forward to a closer working relationship between the younger students and children at the school.

“We encounter many problems like in other schools and by having a young student to mentor his or her colleague will definitely help in curbing some of the problems we are facing as some students are sometimes more at ease to confide to a younger person with their problems rather than to an adult,” said Ms Robert.

The workshop was led by representatives from the Drug and Alcohol Council (Dac), Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, and different religious denominations.

HIV and Aids, problems affecting young people’s health, decision-making skills, personal values and attitude, sexual and reproductive health, communication skills, relationships and empowerment are among some of the topics of engagement for the students.

S4 students Nashill Gonthier from North East Point and Kiara Alcindor from Perseverance, said that the programme had helped them to change the way they do  things as they have discovered new things and others they had seen before were not that important.

They said that too many incidents of students being suspended, class disturbances, fighting, smoking, drug and alcohol among other anti-social behaviours are happening at the school.

“We are getting knowledge and skills to teach others who are not willing to talk to the teachers and we will be ready to help them,” said Kiara Alcindor.