In the heart of the Masai
Steppe, a revolution is going on. A revolution that will change the landscape of
educational advancement in very remote, sleepy but picturesque locality of Kibaya
in Central Tanzania. CUSO – VSO volunteers Martin and Debra Martyn and Tessa
Moss together with the local counterparts from the Ministry of Education and
Vocational Trainings and CEDRC, headed by Mr. Ndee joins hands together to
empower teachers to provide quality education by providing with trainings to
enhance their English skills, provide low cost educational materials and to
improve their teaching strategies using the participatory education methods.
The CUSO – VSO volunteers
spearheaded the PIE Projects which were supported by the British Council and
VSO Tanzania for both primary and secondary teachers in Kibaya. Eight primary schools benefitted from the PIE
Primary projects and five champion’s teachers
are now mentoring their colleagues in their respective schools for the PIE
Secondary Schools Project. These primary teachers and CHAMPIONB teachers now have the confidence and empowered to
mentor more teachers in teaching the students
using an English as a medium of
instructions, produce low cost teaching materials and using varied strategies to
make learning more fun and interactive to students using the participatory educational learning.
To support
the PIE projects, Library in Boxes was launch by Peter and Debra to eight
schools, one secondary girl’s school hostel and in the model classroom to continue and develop the culture of reading
from the students and the teachers alike where the culture of reading was
almost non-existent this schools in Kibaya. Also to further motivate the
teachers in providing a good idea on how to have a classroom that is conducive
to learning and interactive, a classroom model was introduce.Today, teachers in Kibaya
are more motivated and empowered to teach with their acquired and developed
skills in teaching English using participatory methods that makes the pupils
and students learn better.
However,
the challenge remain that sustainability in providing support to the teachers
is not yet enough. More support needed for the teachers to empower them and to
be self innovative and resourceful that they will continue to strive for
excellence to deliver quality education. Kudos to the CUSO – VSO volunteers Peter and Debra
Martyn and Tessa Moss for sharing their
expertise, time and resources and VSO
Tanzania and the Ministry of Education
and Vocational Training for their joint efforts to realize the dream, the dream
of delivering quality education to support development in
improving the teacher s delivery of instruction in English as well
as in utilizing the local and low
cost but quality educational materials
to make the participatory learning more effective. Let the revolution of change
continues!
