Projects - Education - Training

Many teachers in Malawi are not fully trained. The ending of fees for primary schooling and the large numbers of children created a huge demand for teachers and many were recruited without completing training. Shortages in some subjects in secondary schools means that sometimes staff are not teaching their main subject.

Teacher training

We have started short in-service training sessions for teachers using volunteers from Norwich institutions. This was piloted by Roy Gilbert, a maths lecturer at Norwich City College. Roy went to Dedza for three weeks in August 2007 which is a school holiday period.

The work was organised by the Norwich- Dedza Partnership and the Dedza District Education Manager. During the planning, teachers were asked to identify priority topics that they wanted Roy to deal with. We brought the Malawi textbooks to Norwich so that he was familiar with the syllabus.

He carried out three day training sessions for groups of secondary school maths teachers at three locations. About 20 teachers took part in each session. This worked well and there were compliments from the teachers, headteachers and the Education Manager.

In 2008, Sue Eagle, a recently retired Primary School Head, went to Dedza. She visited schools and met the Primary Education Advisors, who carry out inspections and training of school staff. They discussed the education topics where training would be useful. Sue is planning to return in 2010 to carry out this training.

If you are interested in undertaking this sort of project, please get in touch through any of the contacts on the website. Secondary school subjects such as English, maths and science are very similar to those taught in schools in the UK. Volunteers usually pay their own travel and other costs.