Hohoe (V/R), May 14, GNA – Pencils of Promise (PoP), a non-profit organisation that builds schools and increases educational opportunities in developing countries, has engaged stakeholders on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programmes.
The stakeholders were drawn from the St. Teresa’s College of Education (TERESCO) in Hohoe and the Jasikan College of Education (JASICO) in Jasikan.
SEL is said to be a process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, establish and maintain positive relationships.
Mr Raphael Bandim, Programmes Manager, Pencils of Promise, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the partnership with the stakeholders was to improve learning outcomes in basic schools.
He said as part of the process, the Organisation was implementing key activities such as in-service training for teachers and equipping them with basic skills to engage learners in a more fun and engaging way.
Mr Bandim said the Organisation also built classrooms, especially kindergarten blocks, to ensure that early childhood education was strengthened and provided teaching and learning materials and WASH materials a safe school environment for students to learn.
“With this, we are also engaging teacher trainees on Social and Emotional Learning which was geared towards equipping them skills to go out there and be able to be effective teachers and to be able to engage learners to ensure that their life-long learners.”
Madam Selorm Nyamalor, Programmes Coordinator PoP, said it was expected that the lives of the learners would be impacted when they learn SEL, adding all the skills to build the learners up.
“They learn social awareness, they can know that even though they are from different background, they are unique and can work together harmoniously. They need to learn self-awareness, its skills to build themselves up and also learn relationship skills.
“So, at the end of the day, if you take these tutors through and the students are also going through, when the students get to the field as classroom tutors, they will be able to impact learners in the classroom with these skills and the learners who are at the receiving end will be able to impact society at large.”
GNA