The Ministry of Education has begun administering psychological first aid training to all the teachers in the country.
The Ministry said that it was conducting the training in collaboration with UNICEF and Maldives Red Crescent.
It said since it began the program it has now given psychological first aid training to 407 teachers so far. It also said that the ministry aims to train more than 11,000 teachers before the training program is complete.
With schools set to re-open in July, the Ministry said that 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.
The Ministry said that the program was conducted in stages and that in the first stage teachers would be given the training. It also said that after the teachers, councilors working in the schools would be given further training and that this would allow the councilors to identify students who require more assistance than psychological first aid and to help these students overcome their anxiety in a timely manner.
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.
