Development teaching materials Ethiopia

Teachers from Mizan Agricultural College in Mizan Teferi, Ethiopia work on the development of teaching materials to train the practical skills of students and community members.

Natural resources are an asset to a country. The focus of this project is to contribute to better park management and wildlife conservation by bringing forth better graduates (in terms of quantity and quality) at ATVET level. Attention is also paid to natural resources in general.
Training, networking and materials are created and made available to improve course instruction. Important output of this mission will be teaching, training and learning materials (TTLM) as an example and/or for immediate use by individual staff members in the courses they give at Mizan ATVET College. The project is carried out by experts from an Dutch consortium of Van Hall Larenstein (VHL) and the Aeres Groep. In earlier workshops Aeres-experts trained instructors (teachers) in ‘how to give practical instruction’. This training took place at Genesis farm in Debre Zeit. In another workshop in Mizan Teferi instructors were trained in the design of practical assignments. Training related to the topic ‘wildlife management ‘ is offered by the VHL-experts.

Recently, in January, Aeres-experts started to develop teaching cards and practical assignments for students. These practical assignments strive to strengthen the relation between the almost completely theoretical teaching approach and training in hands-on skills. The Ethiopian government accepted and developed the so called Ethiopian Occupational standard (EOS). This standard describes the expected content of TVET (vocational) education in relation to demands of industry and society. The practical components are described as work processes in the ‘Operational sheet’. The teaching cards are an didactical and organisational ‘translation’ for students.

26 Instructors are selected and they are developing sets of teaching cards for their own module(s). At the same time hardware was delivered to Mizan. For example binoculars, Ph and moisture meters, measuring tape etcetera. Equipment will be used in the assignments.

Mizan Teferi is a small town (23.000 inhabitants) in South East Ethiopia, in the mountains. It is more or less a remote area. Till now there is only access by dirt roads, but the construction of a sealed road is in process. The area is fertile and coffee is one of the most important commodities. The biggest African coffee farm is 10 km from Mizan. The region is called Kaffa and the coffee is original from this area.

Benefits
Why is this contribution to Ethiopian Agricultural schools important? Training of instructors both in ‘wildlife and natural resources management’ and ‘didactics and development of teaching and learning material’ will contribute to education of the younger generation. Regional development by training and education, in combination with improvement of infrastructure (roads; internet) will contribute to liveability and food safety.