The beginning of 2009 sees a continued deterioration of the socio-economic environment of Zimbabwe. The situation is critical for schools and teacher education colleges. The start of the academic year is delayed and fewer student teachers enrol than in previous years. By March, the entire country has adjusted to the temporary burial of the Zimbabwean Dollar - with an audible sigh of relief.
Quality Education and Vulnerability
The VVOB programme supports Teacher Education in Zimbabwe, in view of increasing the well-being and development of vulnerable children in the classroom. Vulnerability has many faces in Zimbabwe. Children are made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which affects their family life in many ways. Poverty makes it difficult for people to make ends meet, and this affects the children too. Going to school, and actually learning something, is not obvious under such circumstances. Children with learning difficulties or a disability often do not have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Early childhood development is generally not considered important. Violence against girls as well as boys in school is becoming a major concern. Environmental issues, such as climate change, waste management, water and sanitation (or the lack of it) put a mortgage on the future of Zimbabwe’s children.
Teachers, lecturers and student teachers are not spared either. They also face challenges in their day-to-day lives. How do you deal with your own vulnerability as a teacher? And how do you deal with the many faces of vulnerability that you are confronted with in your classroom?
What we stand for - how we work
Every process is approached from the bottom-up, involving the partners from the very beginning and helping them to stay focused on what they wish to achieve. A VVOB team of mainly Zimbabwean advisors helps to facilitate processes of change and capacity development. This team aims to go beyond knowledge and skills, towards changed attitudes, visions and mindsets. At all times, the team seeks to hand over processes to partners, provided they are ready to take over. The programme uses a low-cost approach, which helps to make activities achievable in the resource-strapped classroom environment and ensures that people participate in the programme for the right reasons; not because they gain from it financially. The programme sees learning as essential in bringing about change.
2009
In close cooperation with SNV and PLAN International, two international development organisations, the programme works with the managers of the teacher education colleges. They reflect on their role in making the college environment more responsive to issues of vulnerability and on the academic implications of a rising number of vulnerable children in the classrooms.
The colleges and VVOB organise staff development activities that focus on environmental education, learning differences and attitude choices, training in facilitation and programme making, cholera prevention and hygiene awareness, basic counselling skills and staff development on early childhood development. In total, about 1000 lecturers take part and over half of them are involved in staff development initiatives of their own college.
Despite the slow start of programme activities in 2009, colleges organise life skills-based workshops for over 7000 student teachers. These participatory workshops work on issues of life skills, positive living and nutrition, moving on, stigma and discrimination, gender and HIV/AIDS, cholera prevention and hygiene awareness,... More and more lecturers gain confidence in facilitation and the development of training programmes and workshops, and manage to organise such workshops with their local teams, whilst VVOB team members remain in the background.
Some colleges reach out to the wider communities. For example, they include parents and school communities on issues of early childhood development, cooperate with vocational training centres and organise Candle Light memorial services, commemorating those that have passed away with AIDS.
Thanks to funding received from UNICEF, training for in-service teachers and school communities on cholera prevention and hygiene promotion is possible. This participatory training with a focus on experiences and existing practices of communities and teachers, and on alternative teaching methodologies, reaches out to nearly 7000 teachers and parents. Marymount teachers’ college trains over 350 teaching practice mentors in neighbouring schools on the vulnerability of students and pupils.
All the colleges have an operational Monitoring and Evaluation system that has build in reflection and learning moments, putting their own practices, achievements and work at the centre. In 2009 we put special emphasis on building the facilitation skills of our staff and partners. Several research initiatives are undertaken, papers written and articles published in journals. VVOB Zimbabwe also develops a local website, www.vvob.be/zimbabwe, on which, next to news articles and training scenarios, a number of toolkits are made available. Partnerships with PLAN International, SNV, IDRC and the Outcome Mapping community, Volens, UNICEF and Save the Children UK strengthen the programme.
2010
There are several newer initiatives, especially related to staff development and in-service training of teachers, where VVOB support will be crucial in 2010. These include staff development initiatives related to Learning Differences and Attitude Choices, Basic Counselling and Environmental Education.
Quite a number of teacher education colleges want to follow the example of Marymount Teachers’ College and wish to support teaching practice mentors. There may also be an opportunity to get involved in in-service training of teachers on learning differences and learning difficulties, life skills and child abuse.
Following experiences of 2009 with regard to early childhood development, VVOB will organise a platform for the Departments of Early Childhood Development, were they can jointly explore ways of integrating practical elements into the lectures.
2010 will also be the year in which dialogue will take place with the partners of the programme, in preparing for the second phase of the Quality Education and Vulnerability Programme.
