Passed with distinction
In Gobabis We can congratulate: The longtime educator and preschool teacher Stephen Santiago Narib from our partner project Light for the Children, who looks after the steps guardian angel and steps homes children in the afternoon with numerous tasks, has the exam "Junior Primary Education" passed with honors! He received the teacher's diploma for primary school and is state-certified. That is an unbelievable achievement: he grew up in the most humble 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 strength for an apprenticeship alongside his work and family!
With the help of our donors, we were able to make further training to become a state-certified teacher possible at the Institute for Open Learning. We also support teacher training and further education in other steps for children projects and in our partner projects in order to know that our steps children are looked after in the best possible way. In 2021 we can look back on a total of 12 training courses financed by us, some teachers are currently active and are still completing their modules.
Training continued during the pandemic
Even during the pandemic, the training courses, which last up to four years and consist of a combination of face-to-face, online and independent learning phases, were continued.
We would like to strengthen our caregivers through further training and further education in the areas of early childhood education and development and thereby sustainably improve the education of the steps children. The advanced training courses impart well-founded knowledge about the care of children in their different stages of development, about safety, health, hygiene and nutrition as well as didactic knowledge about the subjects English and mathematics.
All teachers are already bringing aspects of their further training into their daily lessons and into the work with children in the projects.
Santiago remains 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 buildings of steps, and in the afternoons he continues to take care of the guardian angel and steps homes children together with his steps colleagues.
Big praise for steps
In some cases it is difficult to retain the teachers - because once they have completed the additional training, they are sometimes poached by the state. 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 hand we can be proud that we make such a good education possible and that the state allows our teachers to do so without it University studies discontinued. We are happy for the employees, who will then receive a higher salary. Nevertheless, of course we try to counteract the departure of our teachers: by handing over more responsibility, higher salaries and other incentives after the training. In any case, we would like to continue to make a major contribution to further education and training in this area – Education as the key to change.
The price for further training can vary - tuition and course fees vary depending on the training and travel costs to the course locations.
For 1 year per teacher on Headstart Montessori training college, am NameCOL Namibian College of Open Learning or am IOL – Institute for Open Learning, the fee is between €500 – €2.100.