Teachers learn to deal with pupils from diverse backgrounds

‘Learning how to deal with different pupils a step towards respecting their rights’

TEACHERS from Parow Inclusive School have been equipped with skills to deal with their pupils from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds during a workshop at the school.

Organisers of this week’s event say they were overwhelmed with what they achieved after providing some tools to assist teachers in engaging with diversity, racial and ethnicity issues and working with disabled children.

Spirituality Media charity organisation founder and chairperson Jimi Bertrand said the initiative was inspired by a woman with whom he had chatted last year.

“The parent told me she was not happy with the treatment of her child at a particular school,” said Bertrand. He would not name the school.

Bertrand said his organisation had earlier conducted similar workshops at a local health clinic.

He said the principal at Parow Inclusive School had suggested to him that he conduct workshops on bullying and ethnicity at her school.

“She said she would like to help her teachers and pupils learn more about race relations. “I’m very happy with the outcome of the workshop as it was very productive.”

Learning about how to deal with pupils from different backgrounds is a positive step towards respecting their constitutional right to dignity, said Bertrand.

Zohra Dawood, director of the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Centre for Unity in Diversity, which supported the Spirituality Media charity organisation in hosting the workshop, said: “The nature of the conversation was to provide some tools to educators at the school to assist them to engage with diversity, racial issues, ethnicity, working with disabled children, and based on the demographics of the school, with children from other African countries in particular.”