TCI: Positive Behaviour Management Policy Stakeholder Meetings

#Providenciales, October 23, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – The Ministry of Education, Youth, Culture, Social and Library Services in the Turks and Caicos Islands has been working towards the mainstreaming of the Effective/Child Friendly Schools Framework (ESF/CSF). In this regard, educators have received training and support to enable them to adopt ESF practices such as inclusive, child-centred education and Positive Behaviour Management.

There is currently a need to strengthen the national capacity to implement and sustain ESF/CSF practices by ensuring that the relevant policy frameworks are in place to support these actions. In this regard the Ministry of Education, Youth, Culture, Social and Library Services is in the process of developing a Behaviour Policy. An important step in this process is consulting with stakeholders to provide them with information, and to solicit their feedback.

The United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) agreed to fund a series of stakeholder consultation meetings and will assist the Ministry of Education, Youth, Culture, Social and Library Services with the development of a Positive Behaviour Management Policy for the Turks and Caicos Islands.  One of the main activities in the development of this Policy is stakeholder collaboration meetings which will be held with Educators, Parents and Students. 

The consultation with educators commenced on Monday, 21^st October 2019 at the Oseta Jolly Primary School where representatives of schools from across the country convened for a two-day meeting.  The session with parents will take place on Tuesday, 22 October 2019 and the stakeholder consultation session with students will take place on Wednesday, 23 October 2019 at the Edward Garland Youth Centre.

UNICEF retained the service of Nicole N. Lynch, a Counselling Psychologist, to facilitate the meetings. She is accompanied by Elaine King, a Specialist with the UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area located in Bridgetown, Barbados. A local team will work along with the consultant. This team will assist with the logistics of the consultations and, also with the revision process.

These meetings aim to:

• promote good governance and transparency by demonstrating a desire to meaningfully engage stakeholders
• understand the attitudes and beliefs of stakeholders
• raise awareness of the Effective Schools/Child Friendly Schools Framework and positive approaches to discipline
• seek the participation of key stakeholders in the development and shaping of the behaviour policy
• ensure that decision making will be more informed
• take the views of those who will be affected into account to hopefully garner greater satisfaction with the resulting behaviour policy
• increase stakeholders’ sense of ownership and the chances of successful implementation of the behaviour policy
• build relationships with stakeholders
• acquire information from stakeholders to assist preparation of the behaviour policy

After the consultation, the information will be analysed and shared with participants who will be given an invitation to review the recommendations for accuracy.  Revisions will be made based on the feedback received from the participants.  The resulting documents will be used by us, the local policy development team and the consultant to update the Positive Behaviour Management Policy.  When completed, a draft of the Behaviour Management Policy will be shared with stakeholders for comments.  These comments will be used to create the final draft for approval by Cabinet.

About UNICEF

UNICEF promotes the rights and well-being of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

For more information about UNICEF and its work for children, visit www.unicef.org

Release: TCIG