At a time when the Education Sector in Zimbabwe is slowly recovering from the massive brain drain experienced during the period of economic meltdown which reached its peak in 2008, the Government of Zimbabwe has adopted the Teacher Education Model ‘2-5-2’ across the training of all primary and Early Childhood Development teachers. The model is a strategy to increase the supply of teachers and has the potential of reversing the effects of the brain drain on the education sector. Colleges can enrol two in-takes per annum and the students spend five terms (one and a half years) attached to a school for their Teaching Practice.
The implementation of this model has come with new capacity demands on the teacher as mentor: a (pre-)primary teacher now has to be a teacher educator. Colleges have realised that they need to strengthen collaboration with the school-based mentors who are supposed to contribute towards the professional growth of the students during Teaching Practice.
Bridging the gap
To date, VVOB Zimbabwe has supported twelve out of the fourteen Teacher Education Colleges in Zimbabwe to mount in-service training for school mentors. A cumulative total of ten thousand mentors has been reached in these training workshops that create a platform for dialogue for the colleges and the schools to share expectations and give each other critical feedback for professional improvement.
The in-service training of mentors is a college initiative. Colleges have felt the need to enhance the capacity of the teachers who mentor their pre-service students during their Teaching Practice. The process of engaging school-based mentors involved many steps and created opportunities for capacity development for both the schoolbased mentor (experienced teacher) and the college-based mentor (lecturer).
Nothing for them without them is for them: involving the target
Colleges carried out a needs assessment involving their students back from teaching practice, the school-based mentors and the lecturers in identifying the issues that needed to be addressed. This ensured that their initiative focused on the real issues as seen by the intended beneficiaries. From the collected information, the college lecturers designed a participatory training programme which they pilot-tested with a few mentors and students before finetuning it and using it to reach a larger group of school-based mentors. Through the critical reflections embedded in the processes, college lecturers learnt to improve their practice and be more collaborative in their approaches to teacher education.
Colleges co-fund the in-service training of school-based mentors to enhance ownership and ensure sustainability. VVOB’s main support is provided in the preparatory process of the needs assessment and the design of the participatory training programme. VVOB also provides financial support for the transport and subsistence reimbursements of participants, training materials and a limited contribution towards meals. Where colleges adopt an in-service training model that involves bringing the mentors to the college, the college pays for the accommodation and the facilitation fees. The colleges chose models which they can sustain. Most colleges chose a schoolbased cluster model which involves the movement of lecturers in the field to offer training to school mentors in school clusters. This is a cheaper model because there are no accommodation expenses. The lecturers also reach more people through this model.
A national Teaching Practice Workshop for all the colleges to reflect on the in-service training of mentors revealed the following needs:
- To incorporate the training of mentors into the pre-service curriculum so that when the students graduate they have some mentoring skills
- To come up with a standardised mentorship training module to ensure that all school-based mentors receive the same training
- To look for more sources of funding to reach all the mentors mentoring college students
- To explore ways of sustaining the school-based mentors’ motivation
- For colleges to create a database of all the trained school mentors and monitor how they are mentoring students
Are we there yet???
The in-service training of mentors comes at a time when Zimbabwe is in the process of reviving its education system. During the economic meltdown there was a massive flight of human capital including lecturers and teachers to the diaspora. Successful mentorship depends on experienced mentors working with the student teachers to enhance their professional growth. The in-service training of mentors is therefore a critical strategy to ensure that the schoolbased mentors effectively discharge this crucial responsibility.
Whilst we celebrate with our college partners their success in offering in-service training to school-based mentors, we acknowledge that we have not yet reached the Promised Land. No single college has reached all the school mentors that mentor their college students. With increasing student enrolments, there will be more and more school mentors in need of training.
Notwithstanding these needs, VVOB is convinced that the in-service training of mentors can promote quality education through enhancing the professional development of the student teacher and professional renewal for the lecturers and the school-based mentors. It can be a sustainable strategy to create a continuum of good practice in the colleges and the schools.
By Alvord Sithole and Michael Gumunyu,
Support Team Members of VVOB Zimbabwe
