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I I E P • I N T E R N A T I O N A L I N S T I T U T E F O R E D U C A T I O N A L P L A N N I N G
G u i d e b o o k f o r p l a n n i n g e d u c a t i o n i n e m e r g e n c i e s a n d r e c o n s t r u c t i o n
NEED FOR TEACHER TRAINING CURRICULUM STRUCTURE “Seminars and design workshops involving education ministry offi cials and other stakeholders
active in education and in-service teacher training are needed early in the reconstruction process, to harness the energies of the NGO and agency staff as well as the teachers to
implementing training on a common basis across programmes, with common patterns of incentives, within a well-developed modular framework. If the Ministry of Education
suggests a structure, and possible modalities for implementation, it will help the NGOs and other agencies to plan their support.”
Source: Johannessen forthcoming. “The International Rescue Committee, which supported schools for refugees from Liberia
and Sierra Leone who had taken refuge in Guinea, offered extensive in-service training and in-school support to the refugee teachers. The Ministry of Education in Liberia subsequently
recognized the good performance of returnee teachers, but had diffi culty in awarding qualifi ed teacher status, which required completion of a specifi ed training curriculum. A
compromise was reached whereby a teacher, having received training while in exile, was awarded a basic-level teacher qualifi cation. However, it was observed that projects providing
training for refugee teachers should include the elements required for qualifi ed teacher status in the home country and should be well documented.”
Source: Sinclair 2002: 56.
3. Design an integrated programme for teacher training that provides
an introduction to the needed competencies together with continuing in-school guidance and support.
•
Allocate suffi cient resources for teacher training, since many teachers may be inexperienced and even trained teachers are facing new challenges.
•
Organize courses during vacations and weekends, but supplement them with continuing support.
•
Where possible, do not use the cascade method for training teachers as trainers, unless there is close professional support for these trainers over a period of years.
The cascade method is especially unsuccessful in transforming methodologies of teaching.
•
Ensure that teacher trainers have good pedagogical experience of the type of teaching concerned e.g. university lecturers may have no experience of child-
centred learning activities for primary schools.
•
Make a continuing linkage from the training course to the classroom through the use of mobile trainers, school clusters, in-school mentors, etc. see below.
•
Consider training all the staff of a school at the same time, so that there is less rejection of new methods than when trained staff come back to a school where
new ideas are unwelcome.
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I I E P • I N T E R N A T I O N A L I N S T I T U T E F O R E D U C A T I O N A L P L A N N I N G
C h a p t e r 1 8 : T e a c h e r t r a i n i n g : t e a c h i n g a n d l e a r n i n g m e t h o d s
IN-SERVICE TRAINING IN GUINEA “In 1991 the International Rescue Committee IRC initiated a programme of support for
ongoing self-help refugee education programmes in Guinea, as the implementing partner for UNHCR. In 1998 around 60,000 refugee students from Liberia and Sierra Leone benefi ted
from the programme, which employs about 1,400 teachers in 160 schools. The programme covers all levels, from ABC Kindergarten to higher secondary and in-service teacher training.
An outstanding feature of the programme is the development of human resources through continuous teacher training and guidance. The initial training is not extensive: a workshop
lasting fi ve days. The strength of the system lies in the education co-ordinators, a group of fi eld-based, mobile advisers. Each education co-ordinator is assigned a zone consisting
of eight to thirteen schools depending on size and distances. The co-ordinators monitor teacher performance and provide professional in-service training and assistance by way of
one-to-one ‘conferences’ or mini-workshops for teachers in their own schools as necessary. They also assess training needs and communicate and enforce IRC policies.”
Source: Lange 1998: 5.
4. Promote classroom-based training.
