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In-service workshops by the Ministry of Education during April school holidays |23 April 2014

Trainings to impact on teaching and learning at all levels

 



The Ministry of Education has started conducting a series of trainings and professional development sessions.
They are being held at the Centre for Curriculum Assessment and Teacher Support (CCATS) training centre at the ministry’s headquarters at Mont Fleuri.

The first session, which started on Monday, is for primary school librarians on the implementation of two reading schemes at school level with the aim of supporting the teaching of reading in primary schools.

In-service workshops and training sessions are customary during April holidays for teachers as part of efforts being placed on quality education for all by the CCATS.
These training sessions are follow-up actions stemming from the Education Reform 2009/10 whereby the priorities adopted at that time have to be sustained to impact on teaching and learning at all levels.

Furthermore there was the launch of the National Curriculum Framework and National Assessment Framework in 2013 and there are also some workshops which will be organised during this April vacation in the context of this reform.

Other partners in education will also be taking part such as the Red Cross and Care (Committee for Awareness, Resilience and Education against substance abuse).
The workshops are being coordinated by the Curriculum Assessment and Teacher Support Division in collaboration with the Schools Division.

Explaining the objectives of this workshop for the librarians, Helen Basset, the curriculum development officer for early childhood, said it is to sensitise those librarians on two reading schemes in primary 3 and 4 launched by the ministry.

The aim is for the librarians to help teachers as they are the ones better placed to promote and instill the love for reading among young children.
“Today they will get the chance to see those books, go through them and have the chance to prepare activities from them. There are also storytelling during the sessions so the librarians can be able to put into practice what they have learned,” said Ms Basset.

The session is being attended by all primary school librarians from Mahé. Those from Praslin and La Digue have already followed the training since last February.

Elaborating on the series of in-service workshops, Elva Gedeon from the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of Education said these workshops will boost teachers’ competencies and as the majority of the teachers are trained ones, they need to keep abreast of new developments and changes that are occurring in the field of education and the society.

“So it is important that they follow these trainings on a regular basis. For example there is a series of workshops on mathematics to put emphasis on literacy and numeracy as stated in the reform programme. We have done a lot for language development and now we are focussing on mathematics for children,” said Ms Gedeon while explaining the other subjects being also being covered.

She also mentioned a workshop held by experts on early childhood from Singapore where they trained a group of teachers on the right way of teaching mathematics to children in that age category.


The trained teachers will now pass on their knowledge to their P1-P2 colleagues during this April workshop.

Ms Gedeon also talked on other curriculums that have been or are being covered by the unit which fall under the reform programme. These include workshop on French development for early childhood with the assistance of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie; for secondary school geography teachers on climate change and on how to do fieldwork like visits to wind farm; the launching of the curriculum framework last year which they are now beginning to implement, to name a few.

To mention some of the trainings to be conducted during these April-May workshops, there are health promoting schools concept which is aimed at improving and monitoring the school’s nutrition services for healthy eating in the fight against obesity among children; reflecting on the teaching of French; First Aid skills; pedagogical leadership for curriculum leaders; eco-school record keeping and reporting; Information and Communications Technology; climate change and sustainable development; disaster preparedness; mise à niveau linguistique en français des enseignants à la maternelle; character building and behaviour change; health promotion for athletes; climate change and sustainable living; EC Maths; English teacher accreditation – Cambridge; organisation of the new reading schemes at school level.

 

 

 

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