PRIMARY schoolteachers have been urged to play the parental role to students as many of them come from single parent families.
At a two-day workshop on peace education, about 40 primary schoolteachers from the Central Division were told of the need to strengthen extra curricular activities within the primary education curricular for the benefit of students who although academically weak demonstrated strength in activities such as cooking and sewing.
Participants at the Live and Learn peace education workshop in Suva shared their views over the need to strengthen children's participation in peace building which included children's rights to leisure and rest, to spiritual and moral upbringing, health and hygiene and solid family background.
The annual workshops, held at various centres around the country, was initiated in 2005, Live and Learn field trainer William Young said.
And in an earlier media statement, he said the partnership with the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of Education was aimed at boosting professional development.
"The project seeks to strengthen the meaningful participation of children in understanding their rights through teachers.
"Teachers would strengthen their skills and knowledge to empower children to express their rights in a manner that is respectful, as a way of building peace within communities," he said.