AIMS awards best teachers who performed in Mathematics, Science training courses

By Elias Hakizimana.

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)-Teacher Training Program (TTP) Rwanda in partnership with Chancen International awarded best mathematics and science teachers who performed in the AIMS TTP online teacher training delivered by AIMS TTP Rwanda during the COVID-19 pandemic instigated school break.

The awards were handed over to 42 teachers from 14 districts across the country on December 6, 2020 during the launch of the first edition of its teacher award ceremony.

Teachers from the most engaged training centers and district coordinators who took lead in supporting the fellow teachers during the online training were also given awards including smart phones and certificates.

Dr. Herine Otieno-Menya Director, AIMS Teacher Training Program-Rwanda said that the training is part of motivation among the teachers to recognize their role as the members of the public.

“We need to create more opportunities to appreciate our appreciation to our teachers, not just as institutions, but as the members of the public, so, it is very important to bring this as a culture and make it a more visible practice, we expect from the teachers, we know that this is also part of the motivation among the teachers for them out of the members of the public , that sense of motivation is very important, part of what affect teachers’ instructional practices is their values and attitudes in addition to their knowledge.” Otieno said.

The teachers who were awarded were selected based on their levels of engagement/performance in the key trainings including pedagogical training; English proficiency training; mastery of content and preparing of sample audio lessons.

Three teachers per district were awarded: best female; best male and best sector coordinator per district. To promote collaboration and sense of community, the teachers from the most active training centres were also awarded.

Diane Uwamariya, AIMS champion teacher from Ruhango District in the Southern Province said that the training helped her in terms of ICT practice while teaching Science courses including Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

“The practical knowledge I acquired from the training and the Smart Phone I was given as the award will help me to download some experiments as teaching facilities to help our children adapt to practical science courses as we do not have laboratories. It will enable me to do engine searching online to find more lessons that complement the curriculum and I hope our children will perform well despites Covid-19.” Uwamariya said.

Emmanuel Pacifique Habamungu, teacher at G.S Muyobe in Gicumbi district said that he did not expect any award during the training other than boosting knowledge to help children become more competitive in science courses.

“I am surprised to get the award by AIMS, I have got a smart phone device that will help me because I do not have a computer. It will help me to do research in Biology lesson. We only have kits sciences for school but we do not have laboratories, the smart phone will help me to navigate online YouTube to see some experiments and share the skills to the students.” He noted.

Dr. Fabien Habimana, Director of Science and Research Unit in the Ministrybof Education (MINEDUC) said that over 3,000 teachers including 50 percent of women were trained and they will contribute to increase the number of girls joining Science courses.

He noted that girls are still at 45 percent in science courses and the number keeps going up.

“Such partners who offer training to teachers help us a lot, they were given smart phones, USB devices to help them teach and learn. During covid-19 people did not have computers, this is a motivation and when a teacher makes a step forward it is good for us, we call up on other development partners to support the development of teachers such as training initiative.” He said.

This first edition of the AIMS Teacher Training Awards marks the beginning of AIMS commitment to work with like-minded organizations and members of the public to build an expanded (in addition to the national awards) avenue for celebrating and recognizing the work teachers do every day in improving the quality of teaching and learning of mathematics/sciences in our schools.

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