Aga Khan University trains teachers on competence-based curriculum
Dar es Salaam. The Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development East Africa (AKU-IED) has trained 70 primary school teachers and government officials on Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
AKU- IED Dean, Prof Jane Rarieya said they have had a system to build the capacity of teachers for a long time, but now they have made a difference to keep curriculum changes that are currently in place in the education sector in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
"Teachers used to teach in other ways, now they need to be empowered to keep up with the changes. We have seen curriculum evaluations that goes with time but bothers some people, so we have decided to build the capacity for them.
"We have decided to train teachers to help each other, we have taught them about the evaluation process in order to build their teaching capacity," said Prof Rarieya.
A teacher at Mzizima Secondary School, Ms Veronica Sarungi said they have been instructed not only to use the new curriculum, but also how to test students.
"Often, our focus has been on teaching. However, teaching goes without evaluation, therefore, the training has introduced different methods that will be used in classrooms in order to build students' competence,” she said. A trainer from Msimbazi Montossori Teacher's College, Ms Lorna Fernandes said teaching evaluation gives teachers an opportunity to measure student’s performance and students’ understanding.
"There are different methods of evaluation, but this training was organised to improve the present methods. Six methods have been introduced during this training in order to provide teachers with alternatives,” said Ms Fernandes.
The training facilitator, Dr Winston Massam said teachers have been provided with the capacity to practically prepare and execute evaluation activities in the competence-based curriculum.
