Science, maths teachers to be trained online

Teachers handling mathematics and science based subjects (biology, chemistry and physics) will benefit from a training to be organized by the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA). The high school teachers will be trained in various pedagogical skills in sessions that will be carried online. This year’s training will be executed in June and will involve about 11,000 teachers from across the country.

“CEMASTEA intends to train 11,008 Science and Mathematics teachers on innovative teaching and learning approaches aimed at developing critical thinking and problem solving skills and use of ICT in teaching and learning. The training will be conducted through online platforms such as Google classroom and Zoom. Use of purely online training approaches has been necessitated by COVID- 19 pandemic which may not allow for blended training that involves face to face and online platforms.” says the agency

The teachers usually have their training during holidays where they congregate in select schools that are earmarked as inset centres. But, this has not happened this year due to the current covid 19 pandemic that has seen total paralysis not only in the education sector but also in other sectors.

CEMASTEA carries out these sessions that aim to continuously sharpen the pedagogical skills of mathematics and science teachers so that they are able to deliver quality mathematics and science lessons. To achieve its goals, the centre uses Activity-based, Student-centered, Experiments and Improvisation -ASEI realized through the continual improvement cycle of Plan, Do, See, Improve –PDSI.

Training of teachers is carried out in cohorts. For the June training, guidelines will be provided on the selection criteria to be used through school heads and education officials.

CEMASTEA is a public institution under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) that was established in 2004 to provide In-Service Education and Training (INSET) for mathematics and science teachers in Kenya and Africa.

SMASSE programmes have since  2001 been spread to other African countries under the auspices of the Strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education in Western, Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (SMASSE-WECSA) which has since 2014 been expanded to SMASE Africa.

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