Project spurs paradigm shift in teaching models
Government has partnered Edukans and Education Expertise Development Foundation in a teaching with impact project to promote Star School teaching Model in Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs).
Speaking when he presented certificates to master teacher trainers who completed a three-year course in Teaching with Impact in Lilongwe on Friday, Edukans country director Limbani Nsapato said changing teaching techniques can bring fortunes in CDSSs.
“The project’s focus is on CDSSs because they constitute a majority of all secondary schools in Malawi but are usually under-resourced, which results in poor performance, so with the same available resources we make a fortune by just changing the teaching techniques,” said Nsapato.
He said over the past three years of the course, the pass rate in 16 CDSSs from four education divisions where the project is being implemented has improved by 20 percent and a total of 50 students have made it to university.
An expert from the University of Amsterdam Mark Hoeksma, who was facilitating the course said an active teaching model is suitable for under-resourced schools because learners maximise the available resources through paying more attention.
“The basic weakness of learners anywhere is lack of attention so with methodologies that keep them active, the results will likely be impressive,” said Hoeksma.
Director of Teacher Education and Development (dted) in the Ministry of Education Science and Technology Misheck Munthali said the project aligns with the ministry’s reforms which are centred on continuous teacher development.
“The ministry’s reforms are centred on pre-service and continuous professional development. The National Education Plan focuses on improvement of teachers while Pillar 5 of the Agenda 2063 focuses on human capital development and the project is touching on all these,” said Munthali.
The project, which started in 2018, is implemented by Edukans and Education Expertise Development Foundation with funding from Mastercard Foundation.
The participants were drawn from Domasi College and divisional schools inspectorate.
