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Quality Primary Education Success Stories |
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| Partners | News | Success Stories | Links | Updated: 8/28/2006 |
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Computer Centers Become Nexus of Community Development
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Overview
On May 11, 2001, the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture (M/BESC) and USAID opened the first of four Computer Centers developed for their joint Computer Assisted Teacher Training (CATT) Project. Barely a month later, on June 15, the last of the four Centers was opened in Katima Mulilo. The Centers, located within Teachers Resource Centers, are dedicated to the joint objectives of assisting the M/BESC with its professional development activities and providing Information Technology (IT) to the communities in which they are located. All have 24-hour Internet access and at least seven computer workstations (the center in Ongwediva has 13), a scanner, a laser printer, a digital camera, a CD burner, and a simple teleconferencing camera.
While the primary objective for the project and the Centers was to support professional development activities for teachers and school administrators, the Centers have, from the beginning, also encouraged other Ministries, NGOs, schools, students, and community members to use the facilities. These additional center clients not only allow the Centers to be used more frequently, but also provide the Centers with paying clients that will help the Ministry to sustain and potentially even expand the Centers in the future.
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Computer Centers Encounter Immediate Successes
Relying almost entirely upon word-of-mouth marketing, the Centers encountered immediate success with people of all ages visiting the Centers and paying to become registered users. Within a month, the Center in Ongwediva alone registered over 300 users. In addition to individual users, four Centers began receiving requests for group training. Soon the Centers were being used by teachers and school administrators, primary and secondary school students, student teachers from the teacher training colleges, students enrolled in distance education courses, and community members with many backgrounds.
The Centers are now being used for countless purposes. Teachers use the Centers to research lesson topics, students use the Centers to do research projects and to apply to schools online, and distance education students use the Centers to work on assignments. One particularly creative use of the Ongwediva Center was a teacher who allowed her students to compete in an online stock market contest where the students managed "virtual"stock portfolios. In demonstrating the power of technology to enhance the lives of the visually and hearing impaired, a Peace Corps Volunteer working in Ongwediva has been using the Center’s Internet capabilities with students from a nearby deaf and blind school.
By the end of this project in late March 2002, there were approximately 1,000 registered users at all four Centers. This figure includes 374 users registered at the Katima Mulilo Center, 84 registered at the NIED (Okahandja) Center, 307 registered at Ongwediva, and 220 registered at Rundu.
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Centers Becoming Favorite Training Venues
Along with being a favorite destination for individual users, the Centers are increasingly being used by NGOs, projects, and the Ministry for computer training. The following are examples of training provided in the Centers to date:
. Within weeks of being opened, the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) and the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Project worked together to train teachers from eight schools from all parts of Namibia to work with their students to monitor environmental data and report it to an online data bank used for environmental research worldwide.
. A week later, this same center hosted another workshop, this one jointly sponsored by WorldTeach, the Namibian Legal Assistance Center, and SchoolNet/Namibia. The purpose of the workshop was to train 17 new World Teach Volunteers to work with secondary school students in historically disadvantaged areas to develop websites to raise awareness of domestic violence issues and to support its victims.
. In August 2001, SchoolNet/Namibia, Peace Corps, and World Teach collaborated in providing individualized computer training to over 40 Namibian teachers located near the Ongwediva Computer Center. SchoolNet donated an additional two refurbished workstations to the Center, raising the total number of workstations there to 15.
Along with these projects, the Centers are being used extensively by the USAID education projects to provide training to educators. Over the past few months, USAID`s BES II Project provided approximately 300 principals, advisory teachers, inspectors, and teachers with introductory computer training at the Centers in Rundu, Katima Mulilo and Ongwediva. During this same time period, another 50 primary school advisory teachers and principals were introduced to the Internet by the CATT project in the NIED Computer Center. Peace Corps Volunteers, WorldTeach Volunteers, APSO Volunteers, and IFESH Volunteers all report to have actively used the centers for training purposes. Peace Corps Volunteers have arranged to have the Ongwediva center open on Saturdays to provide individualized computer training to educators.
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Innovative Approach to Center Management
As the Computer Centers were developed to address a dearth of computer skills within Namibia, the M/BESC and USAID developed an innovative strategy to manage the Centers. Not only were the Centers installed by a local NGO (SchoolNet/Namibia) that uses out-of-work, volunteer youth as its workforce, but the project and M/BESC counterparts accepted the task of training out-of-work youth to manage the Computer Centers.
The project`s four Education Technology Trainees (ETTs) came to the project with a minimal amount of previous computer experience; only two of the four had previously been employed full-time and none had management experience or significant computer training. While the process of developing management, training, and IT skills within this group has been slow, these four remain the only full-time employees of the labs and have kept the Centers running smoothly and virtually complaint-free. In the final management workshop, all of the trainers involved commented on the phenomenal professional and technical progress made by the group. Further, all four ETTs are becoming increasingly involved in developing Center policies and assisting with individual and group training. The ETTs are also members of new Regional Education Technology Teams (RETTs) developed with the assistance of CATT to assist the educational regions in planning for introducing and maximizing the use of IT for educational purposes. Other team members include education officers, school inspectors, principals, advisory teachers, teacher training college faculty, and classroom teachers. In recognition of the value provided by the ETTs, the Ministry has hired all four to remain in the labs now that the project has concluded.
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Building on a Strength—Expanding Uses and Access to IT
According to a recent Harvard Institute for International Development study, Namibia`s IT infrastructure is the strongest in Africa. Building on this strength, USAID is one of many groups supporting the innovative expansion of IT throughout Namibia. A primary player in education and technology is SchoolNet/Namibia. This relatively new NGO has a business plan to connect all of Namibia’s approximately 1,500 schools to the Internet by 2005.
As it appears that the supply of IT within the education sector will increase dramatically in the next few years, the M/BESC and USAID are working together to develop policies and professional development support for teachers and administrators. One avenue for this support is the new Educational Development and Support Network (ED`S Net) website, www.edsnet.na, developed jointly by USAID and the National Institute for Educational Development. This site currently provides approximately 50 professional development training modules for teachers and school principals. Topics currently include school leadership, professionalism, basic teacher training topics, and several modules on teaching students about HIV/AIDS awareness targeted at students. Since October 24, 2002 there have been well over 3,000 unique visitors to the site.
Another avenue of support is the Regional Education Technology Teams (RETTs) that were created to help develop a cadre of tech-savvy Ministry professionals that will provide guidance, training, and support to teachers and Ministry offices as they integrate the use of ITs into their daily activities. The Computer Centers, ED`S Net, and the RETTs are all being closely monitored by the Ministry for opportunities for replication in other communities and education regions. The training models and materials developed for this activity have since been adopted by SchoolNet/Namibia for training teachers, students, and out-of-work youth as well as by a WorldTeach project designed to study the effective uses of ICTs in schools in Namibia.
The Academy for Education Development, a U.S. contractor has been the implementing partner for this activity.
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The IFESH Teachers for Africa Program
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Overview
When Namibia’s Minister of Higher Education, Training and Employment Creation requested help in addressing to the critical shortage of qualified instructors in Namibia’s colleges of education, USAID/Washington responded by plugging Namibia into the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help’s (IFESH’s) Teachers for Africa Program. Four experienced instructors arrived in January 2000 for one year stints in Namibian educational institutions, including selected colleges of education and the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED). Since their arrival, the TFAs have not only provided sorely needed professional development and mentoring services to hundreds of teachers-in-training, they have become recognized for instilling a new sense of team spirit within the colleges. The instructors themselves have had a similarly good experience through the program, with two of the original four extending and another two added to maintain the original level of four.
The Minister has requested that the program be expanded. Below are few of the reasons why.
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Professional Development Support
In addition to classroom teaching responsibilities at the colleges, the TFAs are also mentoring faculty members towards much-needed professional certification. One clear result is three faculty at the Ongwediva College of Education successfully graduated with Masters degrees in December 2000.
The TFAs have also aided five faculty members with research, editing, and current information and consultation on a variety of research assignments related to the doctoral dissertation of one faculty member and postgraduate work by the others. One of the assisted faculty members has successfully completed his thesis, which was accepted without revision.
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The Ondao Mobile School Reading Curriculum
IFESH volunteers also led the development of a new, lower primary reading curriculum for the Ovahimba communities. Through TFA assistance, NIED’s Ondao Reading Project began in January 2000, initially to supply desperately needed basic reading materials to unqualified teachers in lower primary mobile schools. The lessons were developed in English and Otjiherero languages, and were designed for teachers who move from one school to another and for learners not accustomed to a school setting or the written word. These rural teachers who had no other reading materials before, welcomed these new materials. The Ondao Reading Project lessons are now in frequent use, and similar projects are being considered for other under-served communities.
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The Multicultural Awareness Campaign
At the Ongwediva College of Education, problems existed between faculty as a result of the racial and cultural divisions created during the Aparteid system. Morale was low and tension was high, with individuals from diverse backgrounds working, often uncomfortably, side-by-side. The TFA, an African-American who could draw on her own experience, developed a paper on multicultural education and organized a workshop for faculty, staff ad students around the paper in October 2000. The event was so successful and highly praised by the staff and students of the College that the Rector requested the same presentation be done at the Windhoek College of Education where similar tensions existed. The Namibians commented that the content of the paper and discussion that followed were eye-openers and an excellent way of bringing diverse groups together. According to the Rector, the IFESH TFAs’ presence and work at the college demonstrated that people of different race and ethnicity could work in harmony.
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Parents Raise Their Hands for Improvements in Education
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The full story
Just over twelve years old, Namibia is a young country, still struggling to overcome a legacy of colonialism and apartheid. One of the sectors in which the Government has made tremendous strides in overcoming the injustices of the past is the education sector. A system explicitly designed to reinforce a two-tiered economy in which blacks and colored Namibians were destined to become laborers and other low-skilled workers has been transformed into a system that seeks to provide a quality education --and the foundation for a prosperous future-- for all students, regardless of color.
Much, however, remains to be done. One factor that is critical to success of any school system is parental involvement. It`s a factor, unfortunately, that Namibian educators cannot take for granted. Parents here often had poor educations themselves. Moreover, growing up under a system that excluded parents and community members from anything other than a private role in the schooling of their children, they have had little in the way of role models. Thus, while Namibians place an extremely high value on the education of their children, parents more often than not lack the skills and, just as important, the confidence necessary to engage schoolteachers, principals and other officials on matters related to their children`s educations. The Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture (MBESC) has requested the assistance of USAID and its implementing partner, the Academy for Educational Development (AED), in facilitating greater parental involvement in the education sector.
While the program responding to the request is still a relatively new one, results thus far have been extremely encouraging. As part of an effort to improve classroom instruction and strengthen school management, MBESC officials working with AED advisors, devised a scheme that actively and deliberately sought the participation of parents in decisions related to improving individual schools. Specifically, parents were involved in helping to develop School Development Plans (SDPs). In the past two years, meetings were held with teachers and principals at over 400 schools in the four northern education regions. Over 3,000 parents and community members participated in the meetings and, together with teachers and principals, took a careful look at the strengths and weaknesses of their children`s schools, determined the primary needs of learners, and recommended specific ways that teachers and principals could improve on their performances. One hundred sixty nine school groups have completed their SDPs during this process. Twenty eight of those schools have received USAID-funded School Improvement Small Grants for projects involving parents and community leaders. These projects include an HIV/AIDS Awareness Center, an Environmental Education Center, production of teaching/learning materials, animal production, vegetable gardens, and other curriculum-related activities.
Based on these meetings and community projects, it is increasingly clear that parental involvement in the schools is beginning to climb. Many more schools with SDPs are holding parent meetings and developing the applications to receive similar small grants. The project anticipates additional projects to include small classroom or school libraries, supporting locally initiated training programs such as literacy classes for parents, and collaborating with community based organizations on responding to the needs of families of HIV/AIDS patients. In one region, where over 240 parents and community members attended the informational meeting on the small grants program, the Regional Education Officer reports that he now gets at least one parent visitor a week in his office, something that previously would have been almost unheard of. Other, anecdotal results are also emerging.
With consciousness raised about the need for more parental involvement in schools, one Ministry official`s school meeting musings about how to develop a culture of reading among Namibian students triggered what has become known as "The Holiday Reading Adventure."The school was Endola Primary, a rural school serving a community about thirty kilometers from the nearest town with seven teachers and about three hundred learners. Here’s how the AED consultant described the three day event.
"Parents took on many jobs, from suggesting storytellers, to setting up a food committee, to organizing a team of 12 community members to raise the tent. The teachers, including a Peace Corps volunteer, worked in earnest to organize their few boxes of books, enhanced by donations from the USAID program as well as major publishers, into a real school library and to plan events that would motivate students to check out books. Local Coca-Cola distributors supplied the tent as well as free samples of soft drinks and a profit-free consignment of drinks to sell.
"After searching in vain for a local artist to design a poster to advertise the event, the teachers at Endola initiated a poster contest in their classrooms. Learners of all ages submitted their designs. Of the many charming entries, the teacher facilitators voted on the two best. It was like a Florida recount to get the final decision down to two! The two designs were combined into one poster depicting a reading tree full of birds and books with animals and children all seated in the shade reading their books. A printer was located to replicate the poster at a reasonable charge and teachers and students posted the final product at their schools, neighboring schools and local businesses.
"The results of all this collaboration and hard work were nothing short of magical. On the first day, over 400 children and parents were at Endola. The tent somehow got erected on time, there were cold drinks available for thirsty kids, elderly storytellers held their audiences in thrall, and the teachers scored big hits with their games, puppet shows, dances and songs. The next day, even more children came, the first day’s books were returned, the teachers were ready with more motivational activities, and the kids moved energetically through another visit to the library. The first Holiday Reading Adventure has already become a legendary event here in the north."
As more and more parents become involved in their children`s education, we see even greater adventures ahead for Namibia’s schools, and an increased number of happy endings for Namibia`s learners.
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Read the latest School Improvement Plan newsletter from the BES II Office (.pdf file)
Click here to access the .pdf file
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