I am Lovishka Kalawon, a 29 year old Mauritian who is passionate about social work in the education sector. I am an Educational Social Worker with 5 years of experience in the domain of education in Mauritius. I hold a BSc in Sociology with specialisation in Gender Studies, MA in counseling and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education with specialisation in Social Science from The University of Mauritius, University of technology of Mauritius and Mauritius Institute of Education respectively.
In 2015, I joined the department of National Education Counseling Service which forms part of the Ministry of Education of Mauritius. I have been working in the pre-primary, primary and secondary schools to provide psycho-social support to students. In 2019, I underwent 1 year of internship at a secondary school as a part of her PGCE course and taught the subject of social studies and sociology.
The project that I am currently involved is a school based drug prevention programme called ‘DAP-Unplugged’ also known as ‘Get Connected’ which has been implemented in collaboration with the European Union. I am now actively involved in the training of secondary school educators for the implementation of the curriculum among students. This project aims at working interactively with students on their social influences, life skills as well as drug prevention at an early age. Though at a pilot stage now, the project is expected to be successfully implemented at national level in all secondary schools.
I am also work in close collaboration with Educational Psychologists in order to set up and implement school based prevention programs for students in the aim to increase academic success and reduce high risk problem behaviours.