A million pupils to benefit from teacher training program

Jun 07, 2016

The Varkey Foundation will continue to support teacher training for both pre-service and in-service teachers

One million Ugandan children have been reached through an innovative teacher training program which celebrates its third anniversary today.

The program, run by the Varkey Foundation, has trained more than 2,300 Ugandan teachers face-to-face.  With these teachers going on to cascade their training to a further 23,100 teachers working in more than 1080 schools across six districts in Uganda, more than one million children aged 6-16 years have now benefited as a result.

The program aims to help raise the quality of teaching in Uganda.  Since the introduction of free primary schooling in 1997 and secondary schooling in 2007 there has been a huge increase in school enrolments, from 3.1m in 1996 to 8.4m in 2013 in primary schools alone. 

Despite the welcome introduction of universal education, and investment from the Ugandan government, these numbers have put pressure on the teaching system.  A 2014 UNICEF report highlighted a high number of dropouts and poor quality schooling.  This has meant improving teacher training and teaching methods is vital.

Therefore, the training delivered under the program moves the focus away from students' ability to learn facts and information. 

Instead, the Ugandan National Trainers that conduct the training encourage methods of teaching students to apply, analyse and create based on what they remember, making learning more interesting and appealing to students.

The programme also trains teachers how to create a culture of ‘personalised learning' in the classroom with greater participation and exploration of ideas.  Rather than simply relying on ‘chalk and talk' methods of standing at the front of the classroom teachers are taught to cater for different learning needs - including those pupils who learn best through ‘Visual', ‘Auditory' or ‘Kinaesthetic' methods and take part in cooperative learning activities.

The education minister Jessica Alupo said, "Free secondary schooling has made a huge difference to those children enrolling in schools, but it has meant that as class sizes grow, the importance of improving the quality of teaching is crucial."

"Over the last three years, the Varkey Foundation's Teacher Training Programme has helped more Ugandan children receive the benefits of high quality education, which will only improve their life chances." 

Herman Kasekende, the Chairman to the Varkey Foundation Advisory Board and Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank Uganda says that, "Evidence shows that high quality teachers using cutting edge teaching practices have a major impact on the lives of the poorest students - those who are at risk of being marginalised."

"One million children in Uganda have now benefited from this programme - children who otherwise may have not remained in school," he added.

The Varkey Foundation will continue to support teacher training for both pre-service and in-service teachers, in primary schools and primary teachers training colleges respectively. The Programme aims to train at least 500 teachers face-to-face, and cascades to 5,000 teachers and impacts 25,000 learners every year.

The Foundation also expects to broaden its areas of intervention to include six new districts across the country, build the school improvement work being done in its Satellite Schools and work with more Primary Teachers Training Colleges.

Since the Ugandan programme was launched, this model of delivering teacher training - with face-to-face learning being cascaded down to more teachers - has been extended to other African countries.

In Ghana, Train for Tomorrow - Africa's first live two-way interactive distance learning teacher training programme funded by a $2 million grant from Dubai Cares - will train up to 5,000 teachers over two years. 

The project will make use of satellite enabled schools, solar powered computer hardware and an interactive live feed inside the classroom, enabling high quality two-way interactive training to be delivered at regular intervals on a large scale.  The teachers trained will pass on their learning to their colleagues.

"The benefit of this model of teacher training is that it can be quickly scaled up, as there are so many young people in Africa that need to be reached.  Train for Tomorrow is one such example" Kasekende added.

"The innovative use of this technology can disrupt the long standing problem of poor teaching methods, which lead to generation after generation of functionally illiterate children emerging from school.

"This means more frequent and high quality communication and support for teachers, which we believe can be a real game changer for education across sub Saharan Africa."

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