On April 1994 the Junior Life Centre Programme was born out
of the need to satisfy a significant number of children (Approx. 5000 each
year) who had been unsuccessful in securing places in the Secondary School
system based on the Common Entrance results. Not only is there no alternative
form of education available to them but their self-esteem is seriously
battered. Many of these students come from disadvantaged homes and abusive
situations which was probably, one of the factors which caused them to
"fail" the Common Entrance; they are therefore coming from the
lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder and their chances of acquiring any
kind of further education are minimal if not virtually non-existent. These
students were therefore classed as "the children at risk" for it has
been observed that the crime rate is not only increasing in Trinidad and
Tobago but there had been a considerable increase in crimes committed by young
adolescents (ages 13-16).
It is against this background and besieged by concerned
parents that SERVOL approached the Ministry of Education with the proposal for
establishing the Junior Life Centres. After much debate and dialogue the
Ministry of Education agreed to the proposal but stipulated that the cycles
would be of a two year duration.
SERVOL with the assistance from the Ministry of Education
has been able to provide ten Junior Life Centres. These Centres at present
house fifty plus students together with their Community Boards of Education.
The under pinning philosophy of the Junior Life Centre was
the same as all other SERVOL programmes, i.e. Respectful Intervention,
employing a methodology that speaks through listening to people and eschewing Cultural
Arrogance.
The objectives are to build self esteem, to equip students
with life coping skills and to produce students who were at minimum
functionally literate through a holistic educational programme built around
the SPICES Curriculum.
One of the primary requisites of any educational programme
and more particularly one as sensitive as the Junior Life Centre Programme is
adequate and quality training for its facilitators. To this end one of the
first areas that was addressed was the setting up of a Training Programme
suited to the needs of the early adolescents on whom the programme would
impact. This programme would of necessity speak to the imperatives of
sensitising teachers to both the cognitive and effective needs that are so
necessary to the mending of shattered souls and the rebuilding of self esteem.
Laventille Junior Life Centre Students
at work
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