DAILY GRAPHIC, Thursday January 19, 2012, pg. 28. Teachers in sub-region undergo ICT training

Story: Mary Ankrah

FORTY teachers and school leaders from Ghana and Nigeria are undergoing a five-day training in leadership skills, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) innovation and integration in teaching and learning.
The training programme falls under the Africa Digital Schools Project “Badiliko” which is the first project to be implemented as part of the new global agreement between Microsoft Partners in Learning (MPIL) and the British Council.

The project, which was officially launched in November 2011, is aimed at improving ICT use in innovative teaching practice, helping teachers to improve their English language skills, and providing content to help educators increase their students’ knowledge and ability to engage in a global environment.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Mahama Ayariga, who officially launched the training programme, said the “Badiliko” project fell into the arm of the UNESCO’s goal of Education For All by supporting the improvement of innovative teaching and learning in Africa.

Mr Ayariga said the project would add value to the quality of education in Ghana, bringing in an international dimension to the classroom.

“The end result will be more widespread and better innovation and use of ICT in schools that would contribute to better achievement of student learning outcome,” he added.

The course modules of the training programme are said to be structures that would equip teachers to become trainers. The teachers would be taken through modules such as managing change, leading effective teaching and learning, ICT skills development, International dimensions and technology, innovative teaching and learning, among others.

It is anticipated that at the end of the course, the teachers would become a digital ambassador for the programme and they would be expected to train other teachers and trainers.

In addition, by June 2012, the project is expected to train over 20,000 teachers while building 80 ICT centres across Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia.

The digital centre would also provide access for students, teachers and the surrounding communities.
Teachers participating in the project were selected in conjunction with the Ministry of Education of Ghana and Nigeria, British Council and MPIL.

Some of the teachers at the training programme expressed their interest in professional development courses that would add to their outcomes.

They said that training in leadership, ICT innovation and integration in teaching and learning would greatly help them to become more effective and efficient in their jobs.

They also noted that basic ICT skills and access to computers and the Internet would further avail to them a large resource of teaching and learning materials, curbing the shortage of teaching and learning materials in schools, a problem that they currently faced.

They also said the knowledge of basic Microsoft Office tools like Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint could be used to simplify lesson preparation and presentation, making work easier for the teacher, and learning more interesting for the learner.

According the British Council and the MPIL, over the next two years, the two companies would each invest $ 1 million in cash, plus staff and in-kind resources to build 80 digital centres across six sub-Saharan countries.