The CITEP and ST2EEP projects have both been brought to a good end. CITEP supported ten polytechnic institutes and the three secondary teacher education colleges to improve management of their ICT. The project worked directly with the IT-departments in the colleges. It supported training by and for IT-personnel and encouraged exchange between the colleges. This approach allowed the colleges to find answers to the challenge of very high staff-turnover. Since 2003, the ST2EEP project has supported the integration of environmental education in the curriculum of the three secondary teacher training colleges. Elements of this project have been taken up in the new programme, as they are very relevant in the context of vulnerability, also for the primary teacher training colleges.
The ZimPATH project, working on awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS in fifteen teacher education institutions continues to the end of 2009. It was very natural for this project to merge completely with the new programme on Quality Education and Vulnerability. It has allowed the programme to take off at full speed right from its start in 2008.
Vulnerability
Vulnerability has many faces in Zimbabwe. Children are made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which affects their family life in many ways. Increasing poverty makes it more and more 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 don’t get the opportunity to reach their full potential. Moreover, the teachers, lecturers and student-teachers are not spared. They also face many 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?
Our programme supports teacher education in Zimbabwe to find answers to these questions. ZimPATH activities on life skills, discrimination, gender, positive living amongst other, allow us to immediately and practically work with student-teachers and lecturers on aspects of vulnerability. In 2008, the approaches of ZimPATH lay the foundation for the new programme. We choose to give a face to the concept of vulnerability together with our partners, starting from their own reality and context. The responsibility for the programme lies in the hands of the colleges. Every college has put in place a coordinating team and develops its own, specific action plan. College managers, lecturers, students, staff development committees, departments of early childhood development work on ideas and processes that they find important for their college. The dialogue between the VVOB team and these partners is intensive. We work together for a future in which all children of Zimbabwe have access to quality education.
2009?
In 2009 we will pay extra attention to new initiatives taken by the colleges, for example in the areas of early childhood development and support to mentors for teaching practice. We will explore new domains, such as counselling, environmental education and learning differences - together with the partners. At the same time, we will attempt to document our learning processes more explicitly. It promises to become a year of hope and growth.
The VVOB team is made up of ten Zimbabweans and three Belgians. We support all fourteen teacher education colleges of Zimbabwe. By working together on issues of vulnerability, we achieve two goals. The lecturers can strengthen their facilitation skills. At the same time they reflect on their own attitudes towards their students and become aware of how they can contribute (or the opposite!) to the vulnerability of their students. A strong team of motivated lecturers with good facilitation skills allows capacity development to happen from within the colleges. Relying on their skills, the programme can reach out to more student-teachers than would be possible if we were to rely on the VVOB team only.
Learning and reflecting with the entire team and all partners is definitely an added value to the programme. There is true team spirit and we think together about our vision. We have made first links with other organizations that work on the same themes, such as UNICEF, Plan International and SNV.
