Mary Slessor Foundation in Akpap Okoyong

The good thing about being a volunteer is that you have time to jump into small projects when you like. At least that is what I do ones and a while. It is interesting because you will be able to see and experience some new cultures and placements. Like last week I went to Akpap Okoyong in Cross River State, a small town just northwest of Callabar. I helped Christine out as she asked help from a teacher trainer to support her in developing a curriculum for the vocational training center of the Mary Slessor Foundation (MSF). Her placement is at MSF since she got replaced from Kaduna due to the violence and insecurity in the area. She just started figuring out what to do and wants to concentrate on developing the training center and support the other departments in management.

So after some time and some observations and chats she discovered that the trainers would like to get a bit more professional and Christine also thinks it is good if they could get more recognition if they get an accreditation on their vocational training. So for that they have to show they are serious.

Serious means the school needs to start working according to a plan, a curriculum. So that is where I come in. With small preparations in the last month Christine and I organized 4 small workshops for the trainers. Every afternoon they had to stay a bit longer to structure their current lessons into a big plan. It was hard work. Most of the trainers are no teachers and therefore not familiar with lesson planning, lets stand curriculum planning. They are good craft men and positive mentors to the students, but when it comes to strategic thinking and planning …..

So the first thing I did was getting them familiar with the term ‘curriculum’ and why it is important to have something like it. I also introduced a model that would suite MSF best considering all the information I got beforehand. I advised them to work with Modules because most of them work in small projects, these projects can be the basis for each module. As most of the trainers were students during the time VSO placed carpenters and welders in the training center to teach the trades, they have some background on rather structured lessons. They still use the notes given to them during that time. As I could see the logic in those notes, it was hard to let the trainers realize the same logic.

Most of the other days was about trying to get the trainers to structure the modules. Give names and topics for the modules so we could start building. Also a big part of the time was letting them realize they are already having a curriculum in their own way only not written down and that they are the experts that had to feed me with information. I remember asking some questions over and over again to make them realize all this. Questions like: Who do you decide that a student is allowed to start practical’s? Or what do you do when a student starts the first time? How do you teach a student to use a welding machine? And what does a student have to learn before he/she can sew a man’s shirt?

It was hard to get them think like that and it took a longtime to get a bit of an idea of the topics for the modules, but we got them! It also was hard to work on the performance criteria. Getting them to realize they have their criteria in their heads all the time I used the example of Christine learning to drive her bike. Afian, one of the trainers is teaching her how to drive, is really strict on the fact that is is not yet good enough to drive on her own. So I asked ‘what does Christine need to show so you allow her to drive on her own?’. An unexpected question. The answer ‘she need to be able to drive’ was not satisfying for me. When is she able to drive? So I let the group break that down into little bits. I think I had them in the right direction at that point.  So now Christine has to finish the discussions and I will support her from a distance. Even when I am in the Netherlands I will be able to help them out.