"The Key Teacher Training course goes from strength to strength and was this year further helped by the calmer political situation in Nepal. A total of 33 Key teachers were trained as Teacher Trainers, and they then, with the AHF volunteers, trained in the Australian Himalayan Foundation Refresher Workshops more than 250 Teachers from over 76 schools. This model and program continues to get more and more cost-effective and successful The Australian Volunteer Trainers continue to make a valuable contribution to the effectiveness of this training."
Jim Strang, Project Co-ordinator.
"Following the Key Teacher Workshop the increase in Key Teacher confidence was marked. During the year Key Teachers have visited and supported the schools in their cluster, and the contribution they have made has been significant. We continue to be encouraged by the efforts teachers are making in their classrooms to improve their own teaching and the learning of the children"
The project cost will cover
The 2008 session for Key Teacher Training (the training of 30 Nepali Key Teachers to be teacher trainers and on-going mentors themselves to 300 local teachers and 4,100 kids in 70 schools).
The Australian Himalayan Foundation project team will be led by a teacher training coordinator highly experienced in the region and supported by local Nepali trainers, and a group of Australian volunteer teacher trainers.
Project Outcomes
Improved Teacher Education:
- Teacher education is the most effective way to increase student participation, achievement, and retention in schools.
- Improved teaching practices will promote higher-order critical and creative thinking to actively engage learners.
- Teach child psychology and an understanding of how students learn.
Increased local capability:
- The program helps greatly to ease the severe shortage of trained teachers in all subjects
- Ensures the sustainability of the project and its results, by providing on-going local capacity to train, mentor and supervise teachers, through courses and visits to schools throughout the school year.
- Ensures long term benefits through significant increases in community support and involvement in the schools.
Part of a larger project
The Teacher Training Program run by the Australian Himalayan Foundation is a major educational initiative rolled out annually in the Solu khumbu Region of the Himalaya. The Footprints Network was able to support all three project phases in 2007 and is excited to be involved again in 2008.
The Key Teacher Training program is the first and integral part of the initiative. The second and third parts are the refresher and training courses conducted by our co-ordinator, volunteer teachers, and the Nepali Key Teachers themselves for about 300 teachers in the 70 or so primary schools closest to Mt. Everest, benefiting a total of more than 4,100 children.
Educational issues in the Himalaya Region
In the impoverished and remote communities of the Solu khumbu, there are very limited future opportunities for kids. With highly unsatisfactory learning outcomes and retention rates, teacher education is the most effective way to increase student participation, achievement, and retention in schools. It also facilitates significant increases in community support (vital for attendance and retention rates), social cohesion and local involvement in the schools.
Better education in turn increases their job and economic prospects and community leadership and income-gaining skills, and greatly assists community well-being.
Community Involvement
The AHF project team is led by a teacher training coordinator who is highly experienced in this profession and region, a group of Australian volunteer teacher trainers and the strong local support of local Nepali teacher trainers (the “Key Teachers”) . All of the teachers who are trained are from the local communities.
Can I visit this project?
Australians (and others) who are qualified teachers can participate as volunteer trainers of Key Teachers, and of the other local teachers.
Contact: info [at] australianhimalayanfoundation.org.au.
You can also support the project by becoming a member of an AHF support trek in 2008, coordinated by World Expeditions, that will raise funds for the project. See www.worldexpeditions.com for details.