Training Day at Atse Bekafa School

Today I finally had a chance to view the work that I will be doing for the next year. Together with colleagues from the college, I went to Atse Bekafa School to assist in delivering training to teachers and set up a ‘model classroom’. The school was built during the Italian occupation of that part of the country. It was used for arms storage for some time.



Later it became a bus depot and now a school. I didn’t expect much and I wasn’t disappointed. What those teacher’s achieve in those circumstances is beyond belief.



Classrooms no bigger than those in the UK and in many cases a lot smaller but with twice as many students. Blackboard and chalk, government textbooks and that’s about it.



This was the first time such an event had taken place and had been set up by my predecessor. A small group of college instructors (lecturers) have been allocated to help the CCU deliver some INSET training to teachers. Delivering INSET in those circumstances is an absolute minefield of logistics. The Science teacher, Hiwat, had provided an excellent plan and undertaken preparations diligently only to be told by the college at the last minute that the materials she needed for her experiments were not available. She changed her plan, got to the school and found the materials she needed. I am putting a photograph of the science laboratory up so you gain some understanding of what these amazing teachers put up with.