Please watch a 6-minute film covering the early education in Malawi and boNGO’s Teacher Training program.

boNGO’s main strategy for raising the quality of early education is to train teachers working in the existing childcare centers. These teachers often attended only several years of a primary school and teach through memorizing and repeating only. Their lessons thus do not provide the children with sufficient stimulation that is in the child’s early years of such importance.

video of an typical English Alphabet Lesson

Methods of Teacher Training

boNGO offers to teachers an on-job training in which they study different teaching methods and the importance of learning through play. The training is partly conducted in the Model Childcare Centers where the participants:

• watch the experienced teachers and conduct lessons in pairs

• study the Teacher’s Manual (details at the end of the page)

• learn to produce simple teaching materials (photo-gallery)

The second part of the training takes place at the centers of the participating teachers. There they teach under a supervision and evaluate their lessons.

The program complements theory and praxis and is adapted to the participants’ needs, encouraging their own initiative, creativity and self-esteem. In the beginning the trainings were led by the boNGO team but gradually the most senior teachers from the Model Childcare Centers have started to participate as supporting facilitators.

Childcare centers that want to qualify for the training must:

• be operating for at least 2 years
• have an active committee formed of local volunteers who manage the center
• have interested and committed teachers
• be actively supported by the parents

About the Teachers’ Manual

The Teachers’ Manual was written for untrained teachers that work in the childcare center which are lacking a sufficient building and teaching materials or toys. The Manual leads the teachers through their challenging situation and suggests how to fill individual days of the school year with activities that are joyful and meaningful for the children. It gives ideas on various ways of teaching numbers and alphabet, and shows how to introduce the children topics like Hygiene, Nature, My country and other. The Manual a source of various activities and games for early learning and is suitable for all types of childcare centers - rural and urban, resourceful or not.

boNGO developed the Manual in 2006 - 2008 in cooperation with teachers involved in the Teacher Training program at the Model Center Umodzi-Mbame. It is available in Chichewa and English.