MONROVIA-Faced with numerous challenges in resuming the academic year in the absence of most of the instructional materials needed for the smooth running of classroom activities, principals and teachers of Education District Number Two, in Saclepea-Mah Statutory District, in Nimba County, along with some parents, have held a series of fresher seminars to get prepared as schools reopen across the country.
Sessions were scheduled to be held in key Satellite towns like Kpein and Flumpa, in the Lao and Gbannah administrative chiefdoms respectively.
Mr. Lee W. Dahn (Nimba Education District Two Officer), was the person who initiated the effort. He said that the sessions were to begin with the transmission of information about the academic year. After that, teachers were instructed on the code of conduct they should use as professionals before lessons on ethics start.
The presentations covered lesson planning, classroom management and teaching styles.
“We need them to be fit to teach our children,” Mr. Dahn said of teachers.
“In order to bring back to the memory of our teachers some of the things they learned way back, we have decided to rehearse them,” he said, as he posed for photos with a cross-section of seminar attendees before the auditorium of the William VS Tubman High School in the historically- significant town of Kpein in Lao Chiefdom.
Participants braved the elements and roads to gather for sessions they said were rewarding and impactful.
They expressed their delight at the benefit of the gathering and wished for more such opportunities in the future.
Mr. Paye Kwainezeh, principal of the Leegbanlah Public School in Lao Chiefdom, said the coming together afforded them to take away some of what they had forgotten as a result of changing times.
“My mind has been refreshed to return to such things as lesson planning and classroom management, “ he said, assuring that his school and teachers were going to benefit greatly from what he was taking away from the seminar.
“And I am glad that we are being refreshed about some of the things we learned four to five years ago.”
Principal Sam Kiepeeh of the host William VS Tubman High School called the seminar “a unique opportunity” that is going to prepare teachers of the newly-elevated school to meet the academic challenge there.
He named capacity as one of challenges the school faces because of the number of students now enrolling; “but we are fighting it and the government is doing some intervention.”
The Williams VS Tubman School, Kpein, has been the first school to be granted high school status in Lao Chiefdom as well as the entire Meinpea–Mah Administrative Dist.
During the teachers’ gathering in Kpein, a citizen of Lao chiefdom, Journalist Jonathan Paye-Layleh, who went to greet them to highlight their efforts donated L$10,000 as a token to help transport participants back home.
Source: New republic liberia