After several years of running training workshops for teachers working in rural schools in Sri Lanka, a CPUT education lecturer is now working with the Sri Lankan ministry of education to train curriculum developers.
Prof Janet Condy is an award-winning volunteer of the International Literacy Association who runs teacher-capacity building programmes at some of the poorest schools in the world.
Condy is a lead trainer in the Active Teaching and Learning Approaches in Schools (ATLAS) module adaptation into Sri Lanka. She has been working with international non-governmental organization ChildFund since 2013 and has delivered 15 ATLAS child-centred teaching strategies for In-Service Advisers, and Master Trainers from the Ministry of Education.
The Sri Lankan government is in the process of changing its curriculum which they inherited from their British colonial masters, and Condy recently spent time in the country training curriculum developers.
Her workshops focus on showing participants the importance to ask higher order and intellectually-stimulating questions when assessing comprehensions.
“Simple recall questions are often used more than critical questions such as those requiring one to state one’s opinion or linking the question to previous life experiences,” she observed.
“My challenge is getting teachers to ask questions, as a result of the civil war they don’t, they just want to ask recall questions but I’m working with them to address it.”
In May she will be in Sri Lanka for her final leg of training.
Roshan Dela Banara, Grant Coordinator and Liaison Manager of ChildFund Sri Lanka praised Condy’s contribution to the development of the education system.
“Currently, ChildFund Sri Lanka is trying to streamline the ALTAS module into the National Curriculum and Janet has taken a lead role in contextualising and localizing the ATLAS into Sri Lanka,” says Dela Banara.
“We highly appreciate her great contribution for children’s education in Sri Lanka.”
- ILA pays for her travel and accommodation expenses, while ChildFund has a budget for her activities while there.
