Women

Female teacher training programs

In Somalia, the gender perspective in the teaching sector is no different from the class room representation. The trend is similar or even worse as the number of female teachers across the learning institutions is dismally low compared to that of males.

It is a well-known fact that humans are the critical resource for development in every society and the desire to attain sustainable development in Somalia may be a long row to turn over with the current education system suffering an acute shortage of one of the main ingredients – female teachers, with their ingenuities, creativities, values and dreams.

Puntland was not spared this dearth of female teachers and in an attempt to fix the problem; TASS has over the years filled this void by getting women to join teaching. In 2006, it successfully completed a teacher-training programme that produced 32 qualified female teachers. The two-year training given to the female teachers has been designed to develop and deepen positive work and development attitudes, self-reliance and desire for life-long education.

The training is not only about imparting new pedagogical techniques on the trainees, but focused too on impacting student-centred approaches that ensure the teachers appreciate children differences and use particular interventions for individual pupils. The TASS method of training ensures that teachers’ skills and attitudes are upgraded to cope with the challenges in the field.

It is worth noting that all the 32 successively completed the training and were awarded certificates. The documents were signed by TASS Executive Director and the Puntland Minister for Education giving them authenticity and credibility.

Fifteen of the teachers are placed to schools belonging to TASS to teach primary level. This is an important step in placement, ensuring job as well as wealth creation. It also promotes morale of such staff as well as assurances of salaries. It further endears the programme to would-be beneficiaries who will be assured of a training not in vain.

In the medium and long-term, the posting of this human resource is expected to significantly boost the classroom performance of female teachers, most of whom began teaching without any formal training. The benefits will spiral to the learners put under the care of this teaching fraternity.