Educational Support Division
“Sukoon Educational Support Division (ESD)”
is aimed to strengthen educational institutions and systems through the psychosocial approach.
The division offers several need-based and useful psychosocial services to educational institutions to facilitate them in achieving their objectives. Some of these services also include complementary psychosocial support from Sukoon.
Education for Psychosocial Growth (EPG)
With specific relation to education, Sukoon has exclusively designed a program called “Education for Psychosocial Growth (EPG)”. Sukoon desires to incorporate this program into the existing educational structures of the top class schools in Pakistan. The program is aimed to provide extra-curricular psychosocial activities within educational institutions in order to enable students in demonstrating psychosocial peace within the society which is the ultimate goal of getting educated. The program is a self-sustained process offered by Sukoon and its activities are supported by a mutual financial collaboration between the Parents and Sukoon through the Educational Institutions.
Education in schools should not only be limited to the routine and traditional curriculum based teachings; it should rather focus on enhancing the skills of students to build respect for human rights and to understand themselves and others in a psychosocial context. The Education for Psychosocial Growth Program focuses on Educational Institutions e.g. schools, colleges, universities, etc. in order to help students and teachers in their psychosocial problems. The program covers a wide range of services involving Educational, Organizational, Social, Developmental, and Clinical Psychology. It facilitates Educational Administration to achieve maximum possible outcomes out of their institution.
Program Contents:
The current services offered to partner institutions include:
Psychological Counseling and Family Interventions: Psychological support is intensively required not only within the educational institutions but in all areas of human life. It has been observed that some students are less motivated towards their educational activities than others. This can be caused due to several psycho-social problems. Psychological counseling is offered to these students (involving their families and teachers) to raise their motivational level towards educational activities and to bring a positive behavioral change. Moreover, many teachers also require psychological support to enhance their teaching skills and to become an effective and student-oriented teacher. The EPG provides full moral and psychological support to the teachers in this regard.
Psycho-academic Evaluation: Learning and getting educated is entirely a mental process. Those who utilize their mental capabilities extensively and appropriately are able to learn more and get distinguished. Some students, however, are not provided with such psychosocial circumstances in which they could use their full mind. On the other hand, our traditional examination system focuses on the performance of memory alone. To assess a student, it is also essential to test his learning & cognitive abilities, creative & critical thinking, problem solving skills, intelligence, aptitude, motivation, self esteem, career orientation, etc. Sukoon evaluates students for different mental processes and capacities to depict any possible shortcoming that could be dealt with her EPG program. Furthermore, this service is also provided to those students who need to take career-oriented decisions in near future. It helps them to select their educational areas according to their aptitudes and to modify their thought processes accordingly. The service is highly recommended for students of class 8, 10 and fourth year.
Human Rights’ Education: The ultimate goal of education according to philosophers, religious scholars and United Nations' principles should include a sense of respect to others and to be respected. Education should not only focus on information but should also include preparations for the students to enable them to survive within the existing society psychosocially and to play their positive role in forming a society full of psychosocial peace. In EPG, several workshops are organized for different levels of students to sensitize them about human rights and social responsibilities. These workshops include different participatory activities including role plays.
Health & Hygiene promotion: Health and hygiene related problems are widely seen within our society. They prevail even in localities where well educated citizens reside. People are not adequately sensitized on the importance of health and hygiene related issues and the problems which could arise by neglecting this issue. Sukoon focuses youth in this regard too and expects that the young generation of our society would be in a better position to understand the issue enthusiastically and will improve the surroundings in this regard. The EPG organizes several activities for different levels of students to address this issue.
Social Work: Students of different levels are engaged in productive social work in order to strengthen their sympathetic and humanitarian attitudes.
Recreation and Fun Fairs: Recreation plays an important role in learning. It is a common observation that educational institutions do provide a short time for recreation and games within their schedules; however, the nature and monitoring of recreational activities is not given importance. Recreational activities should not only be targeted towards physical health, hence they should be aimed to flourish the mental capabilities. The EPG offers more than two hundred different recreational activities to students which are designed according to their specific age group and interests. These activities usually not involve material and are carried out under adult supervision. Moreover, the EPG organizes fun fair events on monthly basis to energize minds and to provide the students with an opportunity to enjoy and play with their teachers and family members. This bridges the communication gap between the students and their parents / teachers and provides them with a sense of belongingness.
Teacher Training: Teachers do possess a psychological ambition to prove their own performance. They adapt several ways to make the students get outstanding performance in their curricular activities. Furthermore, the increased strength of class and shortage in time do not allow teachers to think specifically for the extra curricular activities which could groom the students psychosocially. The EPG helps teachers in managing and utilizing their time and energy appropriately. Teachers are trained for basic problem solving, decision making and critical thinking skills. "Teaching with Care" furthermore, is a two-days workshop which sensitizes teachers on different psychosocial, developmental and protection related needs of students. Teachers are also provided support in designing the class room environment in order to make in more conducive to learning. Teachers are also provided special discounts if they want to join Sukoon Club.
Improving Outlook & Image of Institutions
Academic excellence is heavily dependent on an attractive and conducive to learning environment. The outlook and facilities provided within institutions are significant factors in students’ academic performance. Moreover, new students cannot be attracted towards the institution if the already studying students are not gratified properly. Effective marketing, on the other hand, wins name and fame for the institution. Sukoon Educational Support Division intends to improve the overall outlook and image of an institution by bringing effective and rapid changes. Some main elements of this activity include but are not limited to the following:
1. To improve the outlook of the school by installing banners and posters inside the school and on transport which will project effective messages and quotes to improve the quality of education
2. To strengthen the image of the school through:
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Displaying education related public messages on road side banners
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Distributing publicity material e.g. pens, wall clocks, key chains, stickers, stationery items, etc.
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Organizing one grand seminar to highlight school’s achievements and newly incorporated activities. The participants of the seminar will include students, parents, representatives from civil society, district administration and other stakeholders.
Establishing Quality Assurance Department within Institutions
It has been a common observation of Sukoon Educational Support Division that most of our educational institutions are directed only towards curriculum based routine learning patterns. We, as a nation, have now realized that there is a strong need of curriculum review to make it updated and revised. Sukoon believes that a sudden and complete revamping in curriculum would be quite impossible; therefore, separate Quality Assurance Departments must be developed within the institutions so that the academic output could be made qualitative.
Objectives of the Quality Assurance Department (QAD):
The QAD will be established within the premises of the school and will provide supportive services in all the activities of the school. These tasks mainly include:
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To conduct a thorough review of existing curriculum
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To assess teachers for their competencies
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To measure the working relationship between the teachers and students
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To monitor classroom environment and teaching styles
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To monitor academic performance and homework assignments of the students
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To build capacity of the teachers by providing them with on job training and workshops to make teaching objective oriented and effective
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To plan and monitor co-&-extra-curricular activities for students and teachers
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To assure that students get quality education.
Teacher Training Workshops
Sukoon offers several one-day workshops to teachers. These include:
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Teaching with Care
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Fundamentals in Human Rights and Protection
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Child Protection
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Teaching Human Rights to Children
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Child Development
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Child Participation
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Child to Child Approach
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Environmental Education for Children
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Logic & Critical Thinking
Media & Advertisement Services
Sukoon Media & Advertisement Cell documents and publicizes your work through a variety of psychological ways. We assure qualitative creation on subsidized charges. The services offered by the Cell include:
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Documentary Movie Making
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Visibility, Publicity, Stationery material designing and printing e.g. brochures, flyers, posters, stickers, pamphlets, banners, gift items, notebooks, prospectuses, calendars, etc.
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Website Development
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Event Management
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Information Campaigning
Contact: desd@thesukoon.org
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