Students’ Council
On Friday the 4th of December 2009, there was a different atmosphere at Qormi S.S. Primary School. An air of excitement could be felt by students and teachers alike.
The PSD teachers of St. Ignatius College, Ms. Loren Falzon Aquilina, Ms. Marion Mizzi Haber and Ms. Speranza Spiteri worked closely with link teacher Mr. Emanuel Borg and LSA Ms. Antonella Camilleri Pace on their Citizenship Education Project promoting democracy. As in previous years, the Students’ Council Election was to be held. From as early as October 2009 the PSD teachers embarked wholeheartedly on this project and all students in Years 4, 5 and 6 were exposed to self esteem and group building sessions, good communication skills and media education. Citizenship Education included sessions about diversity, assertiveness, leadership skills and also conflict solving skills. A child friendly powerpoint presentation describing the election process was finally shown and discussed with the students prior to the elections in their PSD lesson.
In early November, the Head of School, Mr. Emanuel Grech, called a meeting with all teachers involved to discuss dates and process of the election. It was decided that on the 20th of November every class had to elect a class representative through an internal class election done by the class teachers in class. The newly appointed class representatives, 3 from Yr.3, 3 from Yr.4, 3 from Yr.5 and 4 from Yr.6 were now to run for the Students’ Council Election as candidates. Between the 25th of November and the 2nd of December, an electoral campaign was run at school with students given the chance to advertise themselves by sticking posters of themselves on the available boards stating the reasons why others should vote for them. All candidates were also given a short slot in the morning assembly to deliver their message to the whole school. Their parents were also invited. The 3rd of December was a very quiet day. The students were told that this should be a reflection day, where none could talk about the election in a way that others could be influenced. Also on this day, the Head of School sent for the Electoral Commission (made up of 5 students who were council members of the previous year) and together with the teachers involved prepared the 5 ballot boxes where the votes were to be cast. All 5 members had the chance to cast their vote on this day. Exactly after, the boxes were sealed and signed by all members of the Electoral Commission. Everything was ready for the big day. 10 tables were set up in the Hall where voters were to vote and a long table for the commissioners was prepared. At 9.30am, all the classes came down to vote, one after the other. It was marvellous seeing everything being done by the students themselves. Every student first went to Jurgen, from the Electoral Commission on the first table, who checked their name and marked any absent/sick students. All students were given 2 ballot papers, a coloured one given by Nicole – which was the one of their respective year group where they had to mark their 2 preferred candidates by putting “1” and “2”; and a white ballot paper given by Kyle – where they had to choose one candidate from the whole school just by putting an ‘X’ (this was done so that we would have an odd number of members on the council). Marilyn and Emerson stayed with the 2 different ballot boxes making sure that students were casting their votes in the right boxes. When all classes were ready, the Electoral Commission took the boxes to the Head’s office where they were sealed again and left there for Monday when the counting of the votes was to start.
On Monday we met in a classroom, teachers, electoral commission and also all candidates to witness the counting of the votes. Again, their parents were invited to attend the Electoral Commission in everybody’s presence opened the boxes, sorted them out in piles of 10 and decided on the ones which were dubious – some were decided upon as valid, a very few invalid. 255 students were eligible to vote but due to sickness/absenteeism only 226 votes were cast which gives us an 88.63% of the school population who voted. Out of these only 2 votes were invalid from the coloured ballot papers and 9 from the white ballot papers. Counting assistants continued their work until we had 9 elected candidates. We stressed that everyone deserved a very big “well done” and that the candidates who were not elected on the council, were still to be the class representatives.
Mr. Borg told the elected candidates that they were to meet that same week to be given duties. On the 9th of December, the meeting was held and our new students’ council was now running – the members being:
Andrea Cassar – President
Sarah Farrugia – Secretary
Shawn Dimech – Vice President
Trisianne Gatt – Treasurer
Bryony Grech – PRO
Glenn Attard – Asst. Secretary
Kyle Calleja – Asst. Treasurer
Ruth Barbara – Asst. PRO
While we augur this newly appointed students’ council a fruitful year of experiential learning for the benefit of all, we cannot not notice and conclude that when kids are given the chance to work under good guidance from us educators, they can prove themselves to be very responsible and hardworking. The subject we love and teach -PSD- is a tool which is empowering our future generation by building the self-efficacy in kids they so much need in today’s world. Only in this way can we produce holistic confident persons ready to face the world and able be to make good informed choices later on in their life!
Special thanks also go to Ms Diane Borg who also helps with the Students’ Council.
