Nursery teachers asked to teach the right content

Nursery teachers have been advised to teach children the right syllabus which involves pronunciation of words, their correct meanings and spelling at that level.

Josephine Muyama, a tutor at Bishop Wills CPTC  Iganga  while addressing  nursery  school teachers at a  workshop held at Buganda Road Primary school recently said that  children  in nursery school  are at a formative stage of grasping  whatever their teachers teach them.

 
‘‘If a child is taught a wrong curriculum at such an early stage, they will take it as the gospel truth because they believe so much in their teachers. Even if a parent tries to correct them, they will not accept and instead take their parents to be teaching them the wrong content,'' Muyama explained. 

She said that the early care and educational experiences of a child can have a lifelong impact, promoting growth and learning outcomes that prepare them for formal school and individual well-being.

Muyama further asked nursery teachers to have refreshers workshops every after two years where they can get new ways of presenting their content to the children.

The project Manager of E- learning Kenneth Obonyo  said that many rural schools especially private don't have qualified  nursery teachers  but  school dropouts of  primary and secondary  levels who are employed to teach the children because the owners of the schools cannot afford to pay qualified teachers.

 
For this reason, Obonyo said that many rural primary  schools perform poorly in PLE exams because their foundations at nursery level was weak.       

The workshop which attracted over 100  nursery teachers from various districts all over Uganda that included Kampala, Kiryandongo, Jinja, Mukono, Wakiso, Gulu, Kamuli, Fortportal was organized by E- Learning Project,  a Ugandan based project recognized by the ministry of education and sports consisting of various  qualified  teachers who have been in service for a long time.

They record their syllabus content on DVDs to ease concept delivery for learners at different levels.

What teacher achieved from the workshop   

Sarah Mirembe, Crested View Junior School Nansana 

 
I have learnt how to teach the literacy subject in a proper order, where I must start with reading which Literacy 1 is and then writing which is Literacy 2.

Denish Acwera Kigumba, Westin Primary School

 Since I teach in a rural school, we have not been teaching letter sounds in nursery, so attending this workshop has helped me to learn them and how best I can teach them to my pupils.

Olap Kam, Red stars Primary SChool

 
I have learnt how to handle young children in a more lovely and friendly manner because this helps them learn faster.

Immaculate Muwonge, director at Immaculate Heart Kindergarten and Bright Junior Nanasana

 
I have a policy of hands on, so I have learnt some of the basic teaching principals in nursery and primary schools.