In honor of Women’s History Month 2012, “Women’s Education, Women’s Empowerment,” IREX is pleased to share the story of one teacher in Senegal educating and empowering thousands of girls and their teachers.
Over 4,500 Senegalese girls are now one step closer to better education and better jobs, thanks to Mohamadou Sylla and the Senegalese girls’ technical and vocational English language teachers he trained. “There is a real need in vocational schools for English lessons, because this is such a marketable skill,” says Sylla. “Students in the technical and vocational schools for girls have a very low level [of English].”
The idea to conduct a workshop for girls’ school teachers in Senegal began with Sylla’s experience in the International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP) [9] at Clemson University [10]in South Carolina. Through the ILEP program, Sylla learned innovative, student-centered teaching methodologies that he was compelled to share with colleagues back home—colleagues who would not have otherwise had the chance to learn, connect, and collaborate in such a way. “Through my ILEP experience I had an amazing opportunity to listen and observe… On a daily basis, I learned from good teachers. I tried to take as much from them as possible.
After completing the program at Clemson, Sylla applied for and received an ILEP alumni small grant to create a workshop that would train 50 teachers working at girls technical and vocational schools in Senegal. His purpose was twofold: give an invaluable professional development opportunity to teachers who would not otherwise have access to such a chance, and address the specific educational needs of their female students.
In Senegal, it's very challenging for girls to succeed in general education because of… “social constraints such as early marriage, poverty, [and] housework,” says Sylla. Hence, his goal for the workshop was to “[sensitize] teachers on the age and gender-related realities of the students,” and empower the teachers to create relevant language lessons for their schools.
Participating teachers created language lessons with content the girls will use in their future jobs, including topics such as computer science, basic health, and food service. “Shared knowledge is about empowering people, and putting English teachers from these girls’ schools together was powerful, because it motivated them... this was the first opportunity they had to collaborate and learn teaching techniques like these.”
Participants also learned about collaborative lesson-planning and the use of ICT for the classroom. “Many of these teachers are the only English teacher in their school—so they desperately needed more materials and new materials for their students,” noted Sylla. Participants had the opportunity to role play new lessons together to see how the methodologies they were learning would unfold before their students. Some of the teachers had never used laptops before and had little experience with the internet—so using the laptop that he had purchased through the ILEP program, Sylla showed participants how to use the internet to gather lesson ideas and plan lessons using internet-based tools they could use back in their school computer labs.
In visiting teachers who participated after the project’s end, Mr. Sylla was overwhelmed by the positive response he received: the teachers had implemented the techniques they had learned in the workshop, and “kept asking when the next workshop would be.” Sylla plans to continue training teachers, broadening his future outreach to involve more teachers from regions that have few resources.
For Sylla, bringing the ILEP experience back to Senegal to train teachers has not just been about improving the quality of education in his community—it has involved addressing a district-wide educational need in Senegalese schools. For the female students of the teachers he trained, addressing this need has not only translated to better English language competency, but the potential for better access to the jobs that require it.
The International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP) [9] is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs [11] (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State and implemented by IREX.