Aga Khan Schools push for teacher training workshops
The account manager at Kognity, Mr Marcus Tirkel (with white shirt), looks on as teachers from different schools in Kampala participate in a group activity at the Aga Khan High School on March 23, 2024. PHOTO/STEPHEN OTAGE
What you need to know:
- Dr Benson Kairu, the IB Development and Recognition Manager for Africa, said Kognity asked IBO to partner with them to share global practices about IB teaching and learning to help the IB schools learn how to structure and formalise the teaching.
The Aga Khan School says it will propose to the Ministry of Education and Sports to set up a regular teachers’ professional development workshop.
Mr Mahmoud Seyani, the chief executive officer at the Aga Khan Schools, said the networking workshops would improve teaching skills and education outcomes in the country.
Mr Seyani, who was speaking at the closing of a two-day educators’ networking conference at the Aga Khan School in Kampala on March 23, said although they have not yet reached out to the ministry to initiate the conversation, they feel this is a unique opportunity for Uganda.
The conference was organised by the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) and Kognity — a Swedish publishing company.
“This conference was a partnership between IBO and Kognity, a provider of e-learning resources, and electronic textbooks. IBO is the global leader in education and normally teachers from Uganda have to go outside Uganda to get IB training in the IB curriculum and how to teach the IB curriculum,” Mr Seyani said.
“This is the first time that IB is offering free professional development workshops for teachers in Uganda and we are glad that many teachers participated,” he added.
Mr Seyani explained that the IB programme is at the forefront of educational research because the curriculum offers both active and concept-based learning that uses interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning.
Dr Benson Kairu, the IB Development and Recognition Manager for Africa, said Kognity asked IBO to partner with them to share global practices about IB teaching and learning to help the IB schools learn how to structure and formalise the teaching.
“IB has inquiry and conceptual-based learning, which is in line with modern pedagogy in the world. We are talking about the kind of pedagogies that align with the way the students learn and also show them how to create good learning environments,” Kairu said.
Justification
He said the workshops are good for both local and international schools because the teachers share experiences and there are things that older teachers may have never heard of all the years of their teaching and this is good for both local and international students because they get exposed to the same teaching methods. Mr Marcus Tirkel, the account manager at Kognity, said they offer the IB and IGCSE curriculum and do not limit it to international schools.
“They cover universal subjects and we are building a community of teachers. We want to see more schools join the programme. We shall continue hosting more events in Africa because this is an important market for us and we want more teachers to join,” he said.
Mr Tirkel said there is a big need for teachers from different schools to meet and exchange best practices so that they learn from each other. He said, as a tech company, it is their role to facilitate the meetings to ensure that the exchange happens.
“We have arranged several subject-specific workshops around technology and how to use it in the classroom to differentiate the teaching that helps students engage and learn. Young kids need more teacher instruction while older ones need to take ownership. We teach teachers how to take instructions more efficiently in the classroom,” he said.
