The Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development is set to roll out an additional 11 schools in the Schools Positive Behaviour Management Project (SPBMP), formerly called the "Child Friendly Schools (CFS) Programme".

To achieve this, the Ministry in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will host two days of training next week for principals and teachers at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Monday, July 12, and Tuesday, July 13.

The training will guide educators on the tenets and skills needed to offer an alternative to corporal punishment through the use of SPBMP.

Presently, there are 10 primary schools and one secondary school which follow the principles of SPBMP.??

The CFS had its genesis at a CARICOM/UNICEF meeting in Trinidad in July 2006, where participants agreed to pilot the first ???whole’ school approach to test alternative strategies to behavioural management of children in public classrooms.

??The concept was formally introduced into the Barbadian school system in May 2007, when the Hillaby-Turners Hall Primary School implemented it. Since then, the school has reported a decrease in the number of cases being reported to the principal, a reduction in the use of corporal punishment in the classroom, improved behaviour among the student population, and a willingness by children to express themselves.

The project is also ongoing in Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia and Dominica.??

Minister of Education and Human Resource Development, Ronald Jones, and UNICEF’S Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Tom Olsen, will deliver remarks at the start of the training session on Monday, July 12, at 8:45 a.m. jgill@barbados.gov.bb

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