'Keeping Girls in School' Access into Teaching Scholarship Programme

Keeping Girls in School is a major programme funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID). Between 2013 and 2016 TESSA in collaboration with FAWEMA (Forum for African Women Educationalists in Malawi) is embarking on a project which is part of the KGIS programme.

The Scholarship is designed to encourage more women from rural areas to enter teaching. The lack of women’s qualifications and experience of working in schools is a key constraint on the recruitment of female teachers, the KGIS project seeks to overcome this by providing the opportunity for women to gain experience and gain the required qualifications to enter teacher training college.

The aim of the project is to help keep girls in school by recruiting 2000 young women from rural communities in Malawi to become KGIS Scholars. The two year Scholarship consists of a School Experience placement in a primary school local to the Scholar where they will act as a Learning Assistant. This will provide the Scholar with valuable classroom experience and give them an idea of what being a teacher involves as well as acting as a role model towards girls in the school. A Mentor will be assigned to the Scholar to help and support them through the School Experience, meeting with them every two weeks. The second part of the Scholarship is structured study to prepare for the retake of Malawi Secondary Certificate of Education (MSCE) exams, the qualification required to apply for teacher training college. Once a week the Scholar will attend tutorials where a Tutor assigned to the Scholar will support them with their studies.

The Scholars will be recruited from 5 districts in 3 phases. In April 2013 300 women embarked on the programme in the districts of Salima and Nsanje, a further 700 women will start in September 2013. The final 1000 will be recruited for September 2014 in Machinga, Zomba Rural and Nkhata Bay districts.

For information on the 2013 to 2016 'Keeping Girls in School' Access into Teaching Scholarship Programme funded by DFID Malawi please see here. More information on this new project to follow.

This project builds on the previous Malawi Access to Teaching Saltire Scholarships funded by the Scottish Government, the units created for this project can be found below and are avaliable to download.

Framework

Induction Unit: My Learning Life

Theme 1: Working with others and learning from them
Unit 1: How the School Works
Unit 2: Helping in the Classroom
Unit 3: Getting to Know the Learners
Unit 4: Observing a Classroom
Unit 5: Peer Support

Theme 2: Children learning
Unit 1: Child-friendly Schools
Unit 2: The Rights of the Child
Unit 3: Teacher Professionalism
Unit 4: Learners Helping Each Other
Unit 5: Child Study

Theme 3: Classroom activities and Learners' subject knowledge
Unit 1: Consolidating your Learning
Unit 2: Overview of Primary School Learning Areas
Unit 3: Activities for Numeracy and Mathematics
Unit 4: Activities for Literacy and Language
Unit 5: Activities for Social and Environmental Sciences
Unit 6: Activities for Expressive Arts
Unit 7: Reflecting on Learning and Progress