Teacher Training Program Creating Positive Impact to Communities
I am Nancy Katete, a student teacher at DAPP Amalika Teacher Training College (TTC). I come from Mphate village, Traditional Authority Kuluunda in Salima district. I joined the college in 2016 and this is my second year.
At the TTC, we undergo different periods of study such as hitting the hearts, fighting with the poor and charter subject, among others.
One of the periods that I have found to be so exciting is the charter subject. The period focuses on subjects like Health Care Expert, Women’s Advocate, Entrepreneur, Community Leader, Food Producer and Media and Information Activism. I am a member of the Women Advocate subject.
In Women Advocate, we have been dealing with girl child education, women empowerment and women abuse. As part of the subject, we went out into the communities surrounding the college to investigate issues affecting women. When we analyzed the data from the survey, we found out that most girls dropped out from school due to forced marriages, early marriages and early pregnancies. We also found out that most parents prefer to send boys to school than girls because of the myth that girls’ place is in the kitchen. Furthermore, we found out that 70% of the women in those communities dropped out of school at primary level. It was also noted that 49% of the women were unable to read and write.
We later on hosted an open day in those communities to provide feedback on what we had found out. We then encouraged the communities’ members to actively participate in the community lessons provided by student teachers of Amalika including myself.
We have about 40 women and 18 men participating in the lessons in which we teach the community members how to read and write. In addition, we have helped the members establish Village Savings and Loan groups. We have also been teaching and encouraging them to adopt sustainable agricultural practices.
I know for sure that the skills that I impart to the community members around Amalika TTC during my time at the college will have a positive impact in their lives.
