Educators plan to take remote schooling skills to Africa

March 05, 2008

Teacher educators at the University of New England are planning to take their proven expertise in remote schooling all the way to Africa.

UNE's School of Education, UNICEF Australia, and the Bhutan Ministry of Education have collaborated since 1993 on a project that has successfully developed the skills of teachers working in "multigrade" (i.e. single-teacher) schools in remote areas of Bhutan. The UNE leader of that project, Associate Professor Tom Maxwell, and his colleague in the School of Education, Dr Charles Kivunja, recently returned from a trip to Africa, where they explored the possibility of similar programs in Zambia and Uganda.

In Zambia they had detailed discussions with teacher educators at the University of Zambia and representatives of the Ministry of Education and UNICEF Zambia. Zambia's enthusiasm for the proposed multigrade project was matched in Uganda, where they visited Kyambogo University and the Ministry of Education and Sports in Kampala.

"The long-term goal of the project would be to alleviate poverty through education," Dr Maxwell said. "Both countries are keen to participate in the venture."

"In Uganda, 90 per cent of children who start school drop out before Year 6," explained Dr Kivunja, who originally came from Uganda. "This is partly because teachers – particularly in remote schools – are relatively unskilled. And in Zambia, where more skilled teachers are leaving the service (largely because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic) than can be replaced by the teacher training colleges, one-third of all schoolchildren are being taught by untrained teachers. This shortage of trained teachers – and the consequent low level of education in many parts of both these countries – is fuelling poverty."

As a result of the visit to Africa by Dr Maxwell and Dr Kivunja, the University of Zambia is applying to the British Council for a three-year grant under the Council's "Development Partnerships in Higher Education" scheme which would enable UNE educators – in association with UNICEF – to assist both Zambia and Uganda in setting up training programs for multigrade teachers.

The project would involve UNE staff in an initial survey of the current and potential extent of multigrade teaching in both countries, pilot studies of multigrade teaching in selected primary schools, and the development of courses for training multigrade teachers.

"As in Bhutan," Dr Maxwell said, "the emphasis would be on assisting the higher education institutions in these African countries to develop multigrade teacher training programs for themselves."

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows children at Chengengelele Community School near Lusaka in Zambia. Click on this image to see a photograph of the school's Acting Principal, Mr Willard Mambo (standing) with UNE's Dr Charles Kivunja and Associate Professor Tom Maxwell.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at March 5, 2008 03:21 PM