Friday 11 September 2015

Transforming Prisons into learning centers, an urgent need.

Many people in contact with the Criminal Justice System need to develop qualities and skills such as resilience, self-confidence, communication and team work. Not only are these wider life skills critical for challenging offending behaviour, but they can also act as a foundation or stepping stone on the path to engaging with more traditional forms of learning.

The voluntary sector makes a key contribution to this, with many organisations excelling at providing education services which encompass more creative approaches to learning, often making use of the arts or sport to engage learners and complement more traditional learning methods. Human IS Right www.humanisright.org , Operation Total Impact and CAMBECSOR works as partners to support the development of creative interventions to support people in prison with impressive results. This consortium hopes that based on past achievements (this year over 50% results recorded at the CGE ordinary level and Baccalaureat for Buea, Kumba and Kribi inmates) current and future plans to make prisons learning centers, the Ministry of Basic education, the GCE Board, the ministry of social affairs and the ministry of Justice will review policy of how the quality and methods of prison teaching can be improved and to make recommendations to further support such approaches.