GIS holds 3rd edition of ‘TIME’ educators’ conference

The Ghana International School (GIS) has held its annual (Transform, Inspire, Motivate and Educate) ‘TIME’ Conference in Accra.

The conference which provides educators with the opportunity to share and learn best practices that will enhance their effectiveness and efficiency in their job delivery was themed “Wellness: Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing in a Robust Academic Environment”

The day’s event brought together some 55 educators from GIS and other international schools who have been trained both locally and internationally, to serve as facilitators at the various seminars and workshops.

This year’s event had 330 participants, 24 workshops, 7 seminars and representatives from 24 selected public schools.

Principal of Ghana International School, Dr. Mrs Mary Ashun, in her welcome address said, “The time has indeed come for us to reflect on our practice, learn from each other and go back to our home school transformed. It’s is time we acknowledge how worthy our profession is, how necessary and how indispensable the teaching profession is to the growth of the nation.”

According to her, the topic for this year’s conference was appropriate because the issue of mental health has become more important in the Ghanaian society and it is about time we all realized that mental health affect all ages.

She added that, it was crucial the educators ensure that children can become balanced individuals and subsequently balanced adults.

“All around us, we see lots of unbalanced people and it’s not just the person walking on the streets, we tend to think that somebody is unwell when we see them naked on the streets and that is not the case, all of us suffer in one form or the other so we need to be open about it and discuss it especially as educators” she said.

Participants at the workshop

Exploring how the right of the Ghanaian child can be protected especially in a society where children’s right are often trampled upon and that makes it difficult or seemingly impossible for children to talk about their emotions openly without parents being judgmental, Dr. Ashun said, it’s about time that phenomena is stopped and children encouraged to speak their mind freely without being disrespectful.

“We teach the children to speak their minds without being disrespectful and we also teach parents on how to talk to their children, because if you yell and shout at your child you will get a yelling and shouting adult who cannot solve problems but to yell at them, so it’s a two pro-thing,” she said.

Source: www.ghanaweb.com