Mentorship programme empowers teachers

Dedza District Council chief education officer Julius Kamwaza has commended Edukans Foundation for empowering teachers in the district under its mentorship programme.

He said this on Tuesday when Edukans Foundation donated five tablet phones to two secondary schools and three primary schools in the district.

Kamwaza said the programme has reduced the knowledge gap between teachers that have been in the system for a long time and new ones from college.

He said while long-serving teachers have experience, those from college have new skills and that Edukans is providing a platform for them to share experiences and trends within education circles.

“We have seen improvement in the 65 schools the organisation is working with.

“There is punctuality and a decline in school dropout rate among learners, improved pass rate and a good working relationship between teachers,” said Kamwaza.

He appealed to Edukans to consider scaling up the project to target all 254 schools in the district.

Edukans Foundation fundraising and partnership officer Daniel Ngona said the mentorship programme is targeting 1 000 primary and secondary school teachers in Dedza to improve learning outcomes for students and promote job satisfaction among teachers.

“As a pilot project, we are giving five schools tablets so that they can access mentorship information online to mentor each other and students,” he said.

Kapesi Primary School head teacher Joseph Mtalimanja said the project has been fundamental in enhancing teaching skills and strengthening the relationship between teachers, learners and the community.

“Many teachers do not have smartphones. We will, therefore, use the tablets to search for information on the Internet and share it among ourselves,” he said.

With support from Unicef, Edukans Foundation is implementing a school-based blended education mentorship programme in the district.