Let's take advantage of World Teachers' Day on October 5 to remind ourselves of their essential role. In any country, beautiful buildings and textbooks are not enough to ensure that children participate, thrive and succeed in school.
Planète Enfants & Développement pays particular attention to educator training, with practices and tools adapted to the age of the students.
Example of a beautiful collaboration in Burkina Faso, with the State, the teachers and the children in kindergarten.
Over the past few months, we have been working closely with the Burkinabe institutions responsible for the initial training of kindergarten teachers: INFTS (Institut National de Formation en Travail Social) and MENA/PLN (Ministère de l'Education Nationale, de l'Alphabétisation et de la Promotion des Langues Nationales). Our common goal: to improve the quality of pre-school education in Burkina Faso, nationwideThis is achieved through teacher training and the provision of innovative teaching materials.
Our training challenge is twofold: to reach students who are preparing to become teachers, but also all those who are already in service. We have therefore adopted a "cascade" approach. We have trained 20 teachers from INFTS who prepare the students, 6 trainers from MENA/PNL but also 14 regional trainers who will in turn train the 700 or so teachers who work in the country.
We have also built and equipped a Center d'Eveil et d'Education Pre-scolaire (CEEP) of application where kindergarten teachers in training at the Ecole des Cadres Moyens en Travail Social (ECMTS) in Gaoua can put into practice with the children what they have learned.
Educational sheets, developed in consultation with 33 educators, a scientific committee and the Burkinabe Ministry of Education, are now shared and available on a collaborative digital platform: the BOP, Preschool Toolkit (www.bop.bf).
The INFTS trainers themselves have received training on these materials in order to harmonize teaching practices.
The new school year started last week in a worrying security context in Burkina Faso . Terrorist attacks are gaining ground and threatening children's schooling: " more than a hundred schools are occupied by the displaced population and more than two thousand are closed, preventing thousands of children from attending school This is the reason why we are so proud of our children," says Gilbert Dah, PE&D's Early Childhood Manager in Burkina Faso. The attention given to the quality of education and the involvement of trained teachers are more than ever necessary to face this violence and allow children to "grow up in a better world".
October 2019
