Passed with distinction
In Gobabis, we have reason to celebrate: the long-serving childcare worker and preschool teacher Stephanus Santiago Narib from our partner project Light for the Children, who looks after the steps Schutzengel and steps homes children in the afternoons while taking on a wide range of tasks, has passed the “Junior Primary Education” examination with distinction! He has thus obtained his teaching diploma for primary school and is state-certified. This is an incredible achievement: He grew up in the simplest of circumstances, with a large family that he has to support. He lives with them in a small hut and still finds the time and energy to pursue training alongside his work and family!
With the help of our donors, we have been able to make the training to become a state-certified teacher at the Institute for Open Learning possible. In other projects run by steps for children and in our partner projects, we also support teacher training and continuing education so that our steps children receive the best possible care. In 2021, we can look back on a total of 12 training courses financed by us; some female teachers are currently active and are still completing their modules.
Training continued even during the pandemic
Even during the pandemic, the training courses, which last up to four years and consist of a combination of in-person, online and self-study phases, were able to continue.
We want to strengthen our caregivers through training and continuing education in the fields of early childhood education and development and thereby sustainably improve the education of the steps children. The training courses provide sound knowledge about caring for children at their different stages of development, safety, health, hygiene and nutrition, as well as subject-specific didactic knowledge in the subjects of English and mathematics.
Already now, all teachers bring aspects from their further training into their daily lessons and into their work with children in the projects.
Santiago is staying with us
Now Santiago is a teacher at the state primary school in Gobabis in the mornings, which has rented a few classrooms in the steps buildings, and in the afternoons he continues to look after the Schutzengel and steps homes children together with his steps colleagues.
A big compliment to steps
In some cases, it is difficult to retain the teachers – because as soon as they have completed the additional training, they are occasionally recruited by the government. We see this with mixed feelings: on the one hand, it is a great loss for the children in our kindergartens and preschools; on the other, we can be proud that we make such good training possible and that the government hires our teachers even without a university degree. We are happy for the staff members who then receive a higher salary. Nevertheless, of course, we try to counteract the departure of our teachers: by giving them more responsibility, offering higher salaries and providing further incentives after training. In any case, we would like to continue making a major contribution to training and continuing education in this area – education as the key to change.
The price for a training course may vary – tuition and course fees differ depending on the training, as do travel costs to the course locations.
For 1 year per teacher at the Headstart Montessori Training College, at NamCOL Namibian College of Open Learning or at IOL – Institute for Open Learning, the fee is between 500 – 2.100 €.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
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