Poor teacher retention in rural schools continues to deprive children in rural Zambia of their right to education. DAPP has since adopted a teacher training method that prepare students for service in places where children desperately need to access their right to education.
DAPP Mkushi College of Education is a pre-service teacher training college that equips the student teachers with the skills that allow them to provide quality, child-centred learning for all. We train student teachers to have a burning desire to give every child, especially those in rural areas, an opportunity to succeed in society. Student teachers experience an all-round training, preparing them adequately for any kind of challenge they may meet in a rural school academically and practically.
In short, we are training “Another Kind of a Teacher, Creating Another Kind of School.”
The college opened in 2012 and it is fully accredited by the Teaching Council of Zambia and affiliated to the University of Zambia (UNZA). We offer the government approved revised curriculum for a 3 year teaching diploma course.
The main role of the teacher is to give their learners zest for life and learning, only then can they learn and succeed. The college, therefore, provide a package of modern teaching perspectives and methods mixing theoretical academic learning and practical real world experiences, driven by the student-teachers themselves, with the able and professional guidance from facilitators and lecturers. They largely replace traditional teaching approaches with methods that give the pupils the space and materials to dialog and explore, placing them in the driving seat of their own learning.
Student teachers end up with an extraordinary and profound sense of solidary humanism, ultimately fueling the passion to work with rural communities. For the past five years, the pass rate has been at 99%.
Further, DAPP has formed a network of graduated teachers for peer-support after they are deployed in primary schools.
Educational Tour
As part of the unique training programme, our first year students conduct a two-month educational tour using the school bus. This tour builds team work, challenges the students to cross boundaries, widen their horizon, trains them to find solutions to obstacles on the way, teach them to embrace gender equity, to learn from experiences and much more.
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Project Fullname: DAPP Mkushi College of Education
Principal Partner(s): Government line ministries and Humana People to People, HPP
Location: Mkushi district, Central Province.
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