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Are Schools Child Friendly?
posted (May 15, 2012)
It's education week - well, actually, education week two. Indeed, the footprint of the education sector has gotten so big that it requires two weeks - not just one to sound out all the issues.

Yesterday was the launch of the Quality child Friendly School initiative. The programme actually started in 2009 - and was piloted in piloted in 9 schools in the Belize and Toledo Districts.

So, what does a child friendly school mean? And shouldn't schools be inherently child-friendly? Well, the truth is they aren't and Dativa Martinez of the Education Support Services told us that listening to children is a major part of that:

Dativa Martinez, Education Support Services
"It is an initiative that is intended to help schools as much as possible to help themselves to create child friendly environments for students."

"It gives schools an opportunity to examine themselves. It calls for reflection on how their schools are and what is the profile of their school and that needs to take into consideration everything about their school. Everybody has a role to play particularly the students. You have to listen to the students for it to work well."

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