Africa
Quality Educators Project: IT training for teachers in Uganda
From 23-27 January, the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU) organised training in information technology (IT). Almost 80 participants, i.e. teachers, tutors, district education officers and district IT technical focal teachers, from four districts (Amolatar, Gulu, Pader, and Apac) attended. The training covered everything from the basic concepts of IT to using the Internet to find information for teaching purposes.
PATC–EIRAF-UEN-EI WAWEN ICT and website development workshop in Togo
From 6-8 February, 10 representatives of the West Africa Women Educators’ Network (WAWEN), from EI affiliates in Benin (SYNTRA-MESRS, SYNAPES and SYNAEM), Burkina-Faso (SNESS), Ivory Coast (SNEPPCI), Senegal (SUDES), and Togo (FENASYET, FESEN) attended an ICT and website development workshop in Lomé, Togo. The event was organised by the Pan-African Teachers’ Centre (PATC) Executive Director, Peter Mabande.
The workshop empowered women educators as effective communicators and organisers, making them focal persons in re-energising the network and their unions, through the practical use of online platforms and social media.
Improving early childhood education via quality educators in Tanzania
On 6-7 February, the Tanzania Teachers’ Union (TTU) and EI launched the “Developing educators, improving early learning in rural Tanzania” project funded by Comic Relief. The project will be implemented in the Mpwapwa and Chemba districts of the Dodoma region. The workshop kick-started a four-year initiative to improve early childhood educators’ professional knowledge, skills and competence. It was attended by 40 participants, including representatives from the Education and Culture Ministry, the regional administration and local governments from Chemba and Mpwapwa districts, the Tanzania Education Network, the Tanzania Institute of Education, as well as TTU officials, regional and district education officers and chairpersons, directors of teacher training colleges and international experts from Denmark, Ghana and Uganda. It confirmed the need for commitment from project stakeholders and communities and stressed the importance of fully involving teachers and local and regional authorities.
EI/UNGEI SRGBV Initiative – General Secretaries’ review and consultation meeting
On 13-14 February, union leaders met to assess progress on the 'Education Unions Take Action to stop School-Related Gender-Based Violence' (SRGBV). This initiative, jointly developed by EI and the UNGEI (UN Girls’ Education Initiative) and supported by the Government of Canada, involves seven unions (the Basic Education Teachers Union of Zambia, the Ethiopian Teachers Association, the Kenya National Union of Teachers, the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa and the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, the Uganda National Teachers Union, and the Zambia National Union of Teachers). The technical experts implementing the initiative, Gender at Work, facilitated the meeting, with a presentation by Sonke Gender Justice, a South African NGO working in communities to end gender-based violence.
The EI African regional office’s Chief Coordinator, Assibi Napoe, Anais Dayamba, and madeleine kennedy-macfoy represented EI.
