World Voice – Meet Pascal Tine
Saint-Pierre Julien Eymard is a private Catholic elementary school in Dakar with 635 pupils aged 3 to 13 years old. Pascal Tine is the young and very committed school director. He's involved in various community activities, including the organisation of after school and summer camps and outings that involve great numbers of children, parents and members of the community.
Embracing World Voice
From the onset, Tine embraced the World Voice programme and integrated its methodology into his school. He had already introduced English classes and foresaw good prospects for how World Voice could help improve learning in the classroom.
Since adopting World Voice techniques, each and every English class at Saint-Pierre Julien Eymard now starts with what has become a very popular song, Hello. Teachers of English, such as David Sène, also run warm up exercises with children before starting his lessons.
“The power of singing makes people forget about their disabilities.” - David Sène, World Voice Master Trainer, May 2016
Change in behaviour
Since introducing World Voice, Sène clearly noticed a change in behaviour among his pupils. They’re always very happy and excited to sing, but now, more than ever before, they show an increase in motivation and feel more confident. Students have discovered that there were various ways in which they can express themselves.
Parents’ pride
The parents of Saint-Pierre Julien Eymard's students have shown a lot of pride when their children demonstrate great artistic and language skills during public performances. A recent example was the participation of these students in the Shakespeare Lives gala held at Dakar’s Cheikh Anta university amphitheatre in front of an estimated 800 people.
What’s next?
Tine is very enthused by the World Voice programme and has started building a World Voice space within the school. He plans on naming the room “La case du chant” (“The song hut”).