ASSISTANT vice-president for the National Secondary Students’ Council’s region one, Dannyelle-Jordan Bailey says schools need to focus more on developing and assessing students’ soft skills, and utilising those skills among peers who need emotional support.

Speaking at a recent Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange, she said secondary schools are programmed for students to take in knowledge, but places little to no focus on soft skills.

“From a very early stage at the primary level we are taught to remember. We read a book, we study and we go into the exams and pretty much just say word for word what we read. The secondary level education fails to give a child feedback based on their interactions with other peers. It would be such a beautiful thing if students were to be trained in their soft skills and then observed by a teacher or other professional in that soft skill so that they could garner feedback on how to better develop themselves,” Bailey said.

She said a good idea would also be to have psychologists go into schools and assess children’s capacity to serve as peer counsellors, and put that information on their reports for future reference.Agreeing, Kingston College head boy and national treasurer for the Jamaica Prefects’ Association, Malikai Allwood, also argued that the secondary school system is reactive, instead of proactive. He pointed to ways in which some of the conflict resolution mechanisms – such as guidance counselling – that are already in place, could be enhanced.

“Are we really assessing each child individually? Does every child get an opportunity to see a psychologist or the guidance counsellor? If students could get a chance, irrespective of whether they need a guidance counsellor session or not, at least a two-day rotation with each grade, that’s proactive instead of when the children are fighting, now you’re going to discipline them by means of suspension. It doesn’t solve the problem, and we need to address that,” he stated.

The 18-year-olds were among a panel of secondary and primary school students who discussed issues affecting the nation’s children at the special forum organised in observation of Child Month 2022, which has been themed, Listen Up, Children’s Voices Matter.National Children’s Day will be observed on Friday, May 20, featuring a ‘Pickney Party’ hosted by the National Child Month Committee showcasing the talents of children ages six to 17 in song, poetry and visual arts, followed by a national day of prayer on Wednesday, May 25.