WHAT AFRICAN AND IRISH TEACHERS CAN LEARN FROM EACH OTHER
16/11/2010 12:00:00
To highlight the work its volunteer teachers do in training their counterparts in developing countries, VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) has invited teachers from Tanzania and Ethiopia to meet Irish teachers this week (16th to 19th November 2010) in Dublin and Cork to share their experiences in Education.
Travelling from Tanzania will be Asya Iddi Issa, Principal of Ben Bella Secondary School in Zanzibar, an urban based mixed school with over 900 pupils and 44 teachers. Also coming is the President of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA), Yohannes Benti, whose Union represents over 90% of the teaching workforce of Ethiopia, some 290,000 teachers.
As well as meeting politicians and trade unionists, on Thursday 18th November the visitors will be meeting teachers working in disadvantaged schools in Dublin to see how challenges like teacher motivation, poor attendance and early school leaving are being addressed.
They will visit St Mark’s Community School in Tallaght at 10 am. St Mark's is a mixed gender, multi cultural secondary school of more than 800 pupils. More than a quarter of their students are from non-English speaking backgrounds and about 40 different languages are spoken in St Mark's.
The visitors will also be meeting the Ballymun and Whitehall Area Partnership and the Ballymun Principals' Network at 4 pm to learn more about the role the wider community plays in educational initiatives. The Partnership's aim is to combat social exclusion in the Ballymun area. The Principals' Network has recently standardised responses to poor school attendance across all schools in its area.
On Wednesday evening 17th November at 6.30 pm, Mrs Issa and Mr Benti will give a talk in the Irish Aid Volunteer and Information Centre on O’Connell street, Dublin 1, about the challenges facing the teaching profession in their countries.
VSO Ireland Director Malcolm Quigley said that much progress has been made in increasing enrolment in Ethiopia and Tanzania but that problems remained.
“Education is the key to empowering people to rise out of poverty and key to a good education is a good teacher”, he said. “But in many developing countries the teaching force is often demoralised and fractured. Teachers are frequently paid little and late, their educational and training needs are often neglected. As a result, the teaching profession is characterised by high attrition rates, lack of confidence and varying levels of motivation.
“VSO volunteers are working at a number of different levels in Ethiopia and Tanzania to support improvements in education management and teacher training, which will ultimately have an impact on the quality and relevance of education children receive.”
Media queries to Caroline Erskine at 01-6401060 or 086-3803995 www.vso.ie
WHAT: AFRICAN AND IRISH TEACHERS SHARE EXPERIENCE
WHEN: 16th-19th NOVEMBER 2010
WHERE: SCHOOLS AND OTHER VENUES IN DUBLIN AND CORK
NOTES TO EDITORS
VSO is the world’s leading independent, international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in 44 developing countries.
VSO recruits experienced professionals to work as volunteers overseas. Right now we are recruiting people from the areas of: management, education, health, fundraising and IT. See www.vso.ie/volunteer
VSO education volunteers train teachers in developing countries, improving the quality and access of education. In Ethiopia for example, one VSO volunteer will train 30 teachers, which in turn will go on to teach 30,000 children.
The ‘Talking Teachers’ initiative is part of VSO’s Valuing Teachers advocacy initiative, which supports the achievement of the Education for All goals. Valuing Teachers is based on the idea that if developing countries want to improve the quality in education, then governments, donors and international institutions must take account of the pivotal roles that teachers play. See http://www.vsointernational.org/what-we-do/advocacy/campaigns/valuing-teachers.asp#0 for more.
§ VSO is a member of the Global Campaign for Education. This week, the Northern branch of this large international campaign is meeting in Dublin. For more information on the Irish coalition’s work see www.campaignforeducation.ie or see our campaign video on www.youtube.com/GCEIreland.
