March 18, 2020

Quote of the week "When you train the teachers to keep clean bodies, teeth, tongue, hair, feet, socks, and armpits, then you have a well-groomed, alert and astute teacher." Janet Museveni

Country Updates

Kampala Writing workshop: The RELI Monitoring and Evaluation mentors and Principal Investigators and Learning catalysts convened a write-shop in Kampala from February 26-28. The purpose of this workshop was to develop knowledge products and 9 learning papers in progress. This write-shop also provided a platform for capacity building to improve writings skills for technical papers.

Uganda:   The Teacher Instructor, Education and Training (TIET) department of Ministry of Education and Sports held its 2nd teacher education symposium themed " Quality Teacher of the 21st Century" from February 26-28 in Kampala, Uganda. It was officiated by the First Lady, Hon. Janet Museveni, Minister of Education and Sports who advocated for holistic learning that fosters intellectual growth and innovation among learners to enable them address prevailing social problems. RELI was represented with a 4-member team of panelists (Mauro Giacomazzi - LGIHE, Ronald Kasaakwa-Komo Learning Centres, Joseph Lample-Kimanya Ngeyo, Modern Karema-Educate!) who presented a theme titled " Strategies for cultivating and assessing critical thinking in Uganda ."

The Learner Centred Teaching (LCT) thematic group convened in Nairobi to deliberate on areas of interest focusing on language and developed a tool for data collection. Data collection is scheduled to begin on the week of March 9-13. The guest speaker for the day was Dr. David Njegere from the Ministry of Education.

The LCT team in collaboration with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) convened a two day workshop on February 26-27 with the goal of establishing an ongoing community of learning. During this meeting, KICD shared insights on the new pre-service teacher education framework and the ongoing cascade model of training to equip in-service teachers for the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). RELI members then shared their work and evidence from the field of what was working in teacher development. Coaching, mentorship, and enhanced teacher development were identified as the possible solutions to barriers that affect teacher training and development. Five key barriers were highlighted and small group discussions and presentations led to the identification of two potential solutions which will be supported by a focused community of learning. These groups are now active, with discussions and planned activities.

Kudos Corner! Congratulations to Faraja Nyalandu, for being appointed a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum for her work in systemic change in Secondary education in Tanzania. Faraja is a RELI member as well as one of the leaders for the teacher development and support thematic group in Tanzania.

What we're reading this week: Strategy communications handbook by WMS Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to "flatten the curve". by Harry Stevens What is the fate of teenage mothers in their quest to access education in Kenya? by Catherine Asego

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