Ministry of Education has begun conducting psychological first aid training for all the teachers in the country.
The training is organized in collaboration with UNICEF and Maldives Red Crescent.
The program has now given psychological first aid training to 407 teachers so far. The Ministry also said they aim to train more than 11,000 teachers before the training program is completed.
With schools set to re-open in July, the Ministry said the program will help teachers manage the psychological effects students have suffered because of the COVID-19 crisis and would allow the teachers to be first responders for such cases.
According to the Ministry of Education, the program was conducted in stages and that in the first stage teachers would be given the training. After the teachers, councilors working in the schools would be given further training and this would allow the councilors to identify students who require more assistance than psychological first aid. This will help these students overcome their anxiety in a timely manner, states the Ministry.
The Ministry assured that it was working to safeguard the physical and psychological wellbeing of the students once the schools restart.
It said that professionals from Maldives Red Crescent conducted the training program.
Schools in the Maldives have been closed since March but are set to re-open in July. The Ministry has said that in Male’ Area, students of grade 9 to 12 would attend school while in islands unaffected by COVID-19, schools would hold sessions for grades 1 and above.
