CEMASTEA News 162
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The 4th edition of e-Learning Innovations Conference Expo is a premier collaborative learning environment for educators, innovators, thought leaders, researchers. The conference is aimed at providing an opportunity to showcase cutting-edge research, innovation and contemporary e-learning practices.
CEMASTEA is currently participating in the on-going one week (Tuesday 13th to Friday 16th September, 2016) conference at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) in Nairobi, Kenya; NACECE Resource Centre.
Mr. Waibochi Paul and Esther Nyambura; CEMASTEA staff, will be presenting a paper on Digital Literacy Programme in Secondary Schools a CASE STUDY of CEMASTEA in line with the conference’s 2016 THEME: POWERING GROWTH / The International Conference For Mobile Educators, Researchers, Innovators, & Leaders.
The Aga Khan University, a partner of CEMASTEA, is a dynamic international and non-profit university with campuses in Kenya, Dar es Salaam, London, Uganda and Pakistan. The University offers courses such as nursing, education, communication and human development among others.
The Dar es Salaam Campus in Tanzania, contributes to the socio-economic development by improving the quality of education hence, conducts a broad array of academic and training programmes for in-service teachers, teacher educators, education managers and administrators from both the public and the private sectors. This is aimed at replacing traditional methods of rote learning with a student-centered approach that builds problem-solving skills and encourages independent thinking.
In 2016, the university in collaboration with CEMASTEA has been conducting a 5 month -three phased certificate course in mathematics and scientific literacy education for early grade teachers from Kwale County.
Phase one was a face-to-face interaction which ran for two weeks in April. The second phase entailed lesson observations and Saturday seminars which ran from May to July. The third and last phase was a face-to-face interaction which ran for two weeks in August and September.
The teachers were mainly involved in various training sessions that saw their participation in group presentations as well as induction by CEMASTEA staff.
CEMASTEA staff together with the teachers in a laboratory session.
The Director, Mr. Stephen M. Njoroge together with CEMASTEA trainers and participants from Kwale County.
The Tokyo International Conference for Africa Development (TICAD VI) was held for the first time outside Japan, with more than 10,000 delegates in attendance. CEMASTEA team participated in the conference as delegates and exhibitors led by Mr. Ngeny Ernest, where we show cased our work and got very positive feedback from delegates who visited our stand.
MR. Ernest K. Ngeny with delegates from the Kenya Police Mr. Mathenge Joseph with delegates in Maasai attire.
The delegates showed interest in the kind of work we do at CEMASTEA wanting to know more of our innovations and great ideas incorporated in our training. As a center of excellence in teacher capacity development in Africa, this conference was aimed towards reaching as many countries as possible through interaction with various people from all over the world. CEMASTEA also got a chance to interact with other exhibitors from different sectors of business thus widening their scope of knowledge.
CEMASTEA Team at TICAD V1Conference 2016
On Monday 29th August, the Japan International Cooperation Agency president, Mr. Shinichi Kitaoka visited CEMASTEA on an official mission. The deputy Director, Mr. Kawa accompanied by other staff welcomed the president to the institution and thereafter held a meeting in the board room.
The meeting began by a welcoming remark from the deputy director and was followed by introduction of all the CEMASTEA staff that were present. A brief presentation on the history and achievements of the institution was then made by Mr. Mathenge before the President was given an opportunity to address the meeting.
This being his fourth visit to Kenya, he mentioned that the main agenda of his visit was to attend the TICAD VI conference that was held at Kenyatta International Convention Centre. In his speech,he stated that the fact that CEMASTEA has become independent, is an achievement to the Japan government. He also assured CEMASTEA staff that the agency shall continue with cooperation to ensure that all the needs of the institution are met.
The visit ended with a tour round the institution to see the facilities that are available as well as assess its standard. The JICA president then planted a tree with the assistance of staff members.
The JICA president being welcomed to CEMASTEA by the Deputy Director Mr.Kawa The JICA president signs the visitor’s book.
A team of Five Lead by Director - Mr. Njoroge Stephen is currently participating in the TEACHHER Regional Workshop as key facilitators in partnership with UNESCO-IICBA, International Institute for Education (IIE) and others. The workshop is inaugural and in attendance are participants from Six African countries namely; Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.
The STEAM teacher training session has been taking place since 9th August to 2nd September, 2016, featuring some of Africa’s best educators, to see the talent, solutions, and opportunity that exist around Africa used to better Teach STEAM.
The CEMASTEA members include Mrs. Mary W. Sichangi, Mr. Samuel Gachuhi, Mrs. Mary Kariuki and Dr. Tom Mboya.
Date: 25th to 29th April 2016
Venue: NI3C
Theme: Promoting STEM through ICT integration in teaching and learning
Workshop objectives
- Enhance participants skills to seamlessly integrate ICT in teaching and learning
- Enhance participants ability to integrate STEM in teaching and learning
CEMASTEA came alive as more than 200 people from 5 different counties including CEMASTEA staff, gathered to celebrate Culture Night On Thursday 25th February, 2016. The cultural night entailed display of cultural artifacts, cultural dance display, exchange of cultural ideas that is educational, and dinner. Good traditional music attracted crowds to the dance floor until late into the hour. The participants were dressed in traditional attires from different communities with was Kenyan dishes form respective communities with ranging from brown ‘ugali’, ‘samaki’(fish) and many more delicacies.
The Kenya ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (KICT-CFT) is a 15-week long online course designed to train teachers to effectively deploy ICT into their teaching, school administration and lifelong professional learning. The main sponsor is UNESCO, in collaboration with Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST). In order to be successful in the course the teachers need to be familiar with the tools required to study online using Moodle platform. Therefore a three day face-face workshop was organized from 19th to 21st January at CEMASTEA to start off the course. This was the second cohort of the training; the first cohort completed in August 2015.
Global Partnership in Education (GPE) Primary Education Development (PREIDE) Project (2015-2019) is a MoEST project with two objectives:
- Improve Early Grade Mathematics Competencies among Learners
- Strengthen Management Systems at School and National Levels
Centre for Mathematics Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA) will be actively involved and particularly in the Project Development Objective 1: Improve Early Grade Mathematics (EGM) competencies among Learners
This objective will be achieved through Component 1: Improving the foundations of learning by enhancing early grade mathematics under the following sub-components
1.1: Improving teacher competencies for developing EGM numeracy (Class 1 & 2)
1.2: Providing Classroom Instructional Materials
1.3: Enhancing Teacher Pedagogical Supervision
1.4: Mainstreaming EGM Methodologies in Pre-Service Teacher Education
1.5: EGM Management and Coordination
Towards the support of this important project, CEMASTEA has seconded Mr. Joseph Ogwel to work full time and currently he is the Deputy Coordinator leading component 1 of the project where he is making immense contribution to the project as observed by the Project National Coordinator Madam Martha Ekirapa. In addition Messrs. George Kiruja, Joseph Kuria and John Odhiambo have been nominated to the national technical team under the project. The launching and commissioning of the technical team was presided over by the Principal Secretary on 5.11.2015 at the MoEST headquarters.
