Teacher Training

Teachers in our schools are amazing people who model the value of learning every day in their classrooms. They are also brilliant role models for the children in their attitude towards their own development as a learner. For many of our teachers, their own education has been disrupted and so, even though they have much valuable experience of teaching, they do not yet have the coveted ‘Diploma’ which they aspire to. This means that in addition to teaching, looking after a home and children, many of our teachers are also studying for exams.

In Zambia, ‘O’ levels are taken at the end of Grade 12. In recent years, it has become increasingly necessary to have 5 ‘O’ levels including English and Maths in order to start any other type of training, such as Teacher Training. This has not always been the case, which means that many teachers who are now in a position to be able to start their training as a teacher, are having to sit exams again before they can do so. Often when we ask teachers what they will be doing in their holidays, the answer is studying or attending college. It is great to see that our teachers have the strength of character to continue with their own education in order to achieve their dreams.

Teachers are also very enthusiastic about improving their own teaching. There is a new curriculum being introduced in Zambia at the moment, which means that training is even more important. As well as running training sessions ourselves, we are increasingly working with the head teachers to help them to run their own training. This helps both by developing their own skills but also the confidence in training staff, which can be a challenge at times. Occasionally head teachers will ask us to run a training session because “ they will listen to you more than me”. This makes me feel really sad, as it shouldn’t be the case that we have more authority than the head teachers. This is one of the reasons that we have been working closely with the head teachers this year to help them develop their own leadership skills. Just as many of the teachers have learned on the job, the head teachers have to do the same as there is no leadership training as their would be in many other countries. We firmly believe in empowering people, and one of the ways in which we can do this is to develop the skills of the leaders of our schools.