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Strengthening teachers’ capacity in Jamaica to support peace in the classrooms
The UNESCO Office for the Caribbean recently partnered with Kingston High School in Jamaica to strengthen the capacity of its 59 educators via a two-day workshop. The capacity-building session, which was held on March 3 and 28, 2025, focused on peace education, positive teacher-student relationships, promoting values in the classroom, and socio-emotional learning. It was accompanied by four post-workshop mentoring sessions over March and April 2025.
The intervention was implemented under Phase 2 of the larger SALIENT (Saving Lives Entity) initiative, part of the “Reducing Small Arms and Light Weapons in Jamaica” project, established to support the Government of Jamaica in addressing illicit trafficking in firearms while enabling populations at risk to benefit from armed violence prevention and reduction programs.
The project is being jointly implemented by four other UN entities: the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA), the Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The collaboration between UNESCO and Kingston High School was mutually beneficial and timely. UNESCO is currently advancing its program aimed, among other things, at addressing violence in and around schools, since "safe, inclusive, violence-free learning environments are in the interests of all."
In the meantime, Kingston High School, which faces a challenging school environment, is working comprehensively with its teachers and students to prevent and address the issue in order to keep high excellence in students performance. The intervention is expected to yield, for the future, positive results for both students and teachers alike.
