The safe school covers not only the physical aspect but also psychological. For the teenager going through the challenging years of secondary school, counseling services play a critical role; the more teachers are prepared and trained, the more beneficial for the students.
Recognizing the importance of counseling support for the students' development to the fullest, UNESCO Viet Nam, in collaboration with the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators (Ministry of Education and Training) and Ha Noi Open University organized an E-learning course on gender-sensitive school counselling for secondary teachers.
From September to December 2020, around 700 teachers from Soc Trang, Ninh Thuan and Ha Giang province will take this newly designed course which aims to provide them with the advanced subject matter background on gender-based violence in schools and strengthened capacities on gender-sensitive counselling. They require to foster a safe and healthy educational environment.
The age of junior high school students is a transition period from children to adult with many diverse and complex psychological changes. Therefore, students at this age need the help of adults to cope with the psychological "crisis" in the process of developing and improving personality. This means that they need school psychology counselling. Through this training course, we wish to equip teachers with the necessary psychological counselling skills and knowledge to support secondary schools
The sad reality is that violence does happen in school, which can lead to both physical and mental injury for the students affected. And it requires an immediate need for a response - to understand and listen to the students' emotions, feelings and difficulties and give them prompt advice. To do that, capacity building training for staff and teachers on psychological counselling is essential. By participating in this training, I hope that other teachers and I will be equipped with professional knowledge and skills about psychological counselling for students, thereby reducing the risks of gender-based violence in schools and improving the quality of comprehensive education for students
UNESCO is proud to work with the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators to pioneer the development of online training courses for teachers and educational administrators in Viet Nam While the pilot subject targets the priority issue of school counseling, both partners will work to see that this becomes the basis for a wider training platform operated by the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators, serving as a useful source of learning for the teachers and educational administrators throughout Viet Nam.
This activity is implemented under UNESCO’s “We are ABLE” Programme which improves educational outcomes for ethnic minority secondary school students, teachers, principals and education officials, parents and community members in ethnic minority areas in Ha Giang, Ninh Thuan and Soc Trang. Over 9,000 of these individuals are female including 6,000 girls aged 11-14 from 24 lower secondary schools. We are ABLE is a three-year intervention implemented by the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators and the Departments of Education and Training, with support from UNESCO and CJ Group of Korea. The Programme’s initial phases targets 24 lower secondary schools in three provinces.