University College Plymouth St Mark & St John

KEYSWOTT Project – Key Skills for Women Teacher Trainers  

CIE worked in partnership with St Mary’s University College (SMUC), Addis Ababa in 2007 to 2008, to produce a set of stories celebrating the achievements of women in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa.  The stories were written for girls and boys at upper primary level (11-14 years old) and are designed to raise awareness of gender equity issues, through inspirational stories of African women overcoming problems of prejudice and harmful traditional practices. 

The stories are presented under the title ‘Our Youth – Our Future’, in three volumes:

Book1 Grade 5 and 6

Book 2 Grade 7

The books include activities to help readers explore gender inequality and other issues raised in the stories. They are accompanied by a Teacher’s Guide, which give suggestions about how the books might be used in schools, and a Teacher Training Module which is currently being used on training courses run by SMUC both in-house and on their out-reach programme.

*The Keyswott team, with Katy Salisbury from Marjon

Notes from the Keyswott team, on the launch of the stories at an in-service training course in Addis Ababa

“We conducted a two-day workshop this week. 19 teachers, who came from Amhara, Oromiya, Sourther Nations and Nationalities People Region, and Tigray took part in the training. The participants are supervisors and trainers in their respective regions. According to the newly introduced system, to help schools learn from one another's experience, they are clustered and have got one school as supervisor. This school is in charge of sharing new experience, good practice and so on to the other schools under its supervision. They are expected to organize experience sharing sessions when they go back to their respective schools. Thus the multiplier effect will be immense.

The workshop was so interactive, participatory and practical. All the stories were read, analyzed and attempts were made to help trainees produce similar stories, which resulted in four stories. This exercise was fun and fruitful.

We received very encouraging feedback from participants. They appreciated the quality of the books, the exercises, the issues raised, the simplicity of the language, the narration techniques and the like. They said such books need to be developed for other grades too. They insisted that we should think of writing similar materials for Grades 1-4 as this is the stage where we lay the basis for education. Some of them also suggested that we should produce such materials for secondary schools students. Thanking Marjon and the funding agency, they asked if the books could be re-published with more copies and distributed to schools which had not received copies. They urged St. Mary's to look for funding and reach the schools with no copies of the books.

Concerning the workshop, they appreciated the way the workshop was organized. They said they didn't know how the two days went so quickly. Some of them were amazed when told by facilitators that it was time for tea or lunch because they were absorbed by the activities. They asked us if it could be extended. They also suggested that impact assessment be conducted.”

“The workshop received a very wide coverage by Addis Zemen - a daily government-owned Amharic newspaper. Included were interviews of two participants who applauded the materials and the workshop. They said it was splendid and timely work. Education bureaux are asking us to give them additional copies so that every school in the country can take advantage of the materials. They suggested we could look for funds for the reprinting to reach all schools. We're grateful to you, Marjon and DIUS [The UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, which funded the partnership].

The team has already planned to keep the project going and produce such materials every year. The courage the team has now is so incredible and SMUC's management is very happy and ready to maintain this spirit.  We hope Marjon will always be with us to ensure the sustainability of the project.”

“Our books were given to 12 African scholars who came to Addis Ababa for training, representing their countries. The week-long training was on Gender. One of the members of the KeySWoTT team took part in the training and, during experience-sharing sessions, she told participants about the story books, which are part of SMUC's attempt to contribute to gender awareness. The trainer, who had read the books before, also mentioned them. Having read the materials, they were impressed.”