June 8, 2022 (ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia): The Health and Social Development Division of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) today kick started a Regional Teacher Training Learning Exchange Workshop for Displaced and Refugee Communities, today, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Theme of the workshop is “Training the teachers for inclusive and quality Education for refugees, returnees and Host communities”.
Speaking on behalf of the Executive Secretary of IGAD, the IGAD Director for Health and Social Development Division, Mme Fathia Alwan, welcomed the participants and stressed that the IGAD Teacher Training Programme is an integral part of the implementation of the Djibouti Declaration and its accompanying Plan of Action on Education for Refugees, Returnees, IDPs and Host Communities.
“I take this opportunity to give special thanks to the government of Germany through GIZ for supporting the pilot phase. I also want to thank Particip for implementing this IGAD – GIZ Teacher Training initiative and the work done so far.” The Director added.
So far, 607 teachers have been trained in the first and second round of its piloting phase.
IGAD- Regional Teacher Training learning Exchange Workshop was opened and chaired by Dr Ibtisam Mohamed Hassen, Director General for policies and planning Directorates, Ministry of Education Sudan. Representatives from UNHCR, UNESCO, GIZ and Particip gave their welcoming remarks
The two-day workshop is aimed at sharing lessons from the experience of the first and second rounds of the training during the pilot phase in the three countries: Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.
The key purpose of the Regional Learning Exchange Workshop is to provide a forum for key stakeholders and partners to collaboratively discuss, reflect and analyse the learning approach and all activities completed over an 18-month period.
Stakeholders and partners invited to the Regional Learning Exchange Workshop include: teachers that have participated in the training, representatives from the respective partner institutions including the Ministry of Education, National Teachers’ College Trainers, GIZ, Particip, UNHCR, UNESCO and IGAD secretariat attended the two days meeting.
The workshop is being convened by IGAD, in partnership with the Government of Germany through GIZ and implemented by Particip.
A key expected outcome of this consultation is the formation of Working Groups in respective countries. It also clears summary statement of what needs to happen to achieve teacher training and sustainable professional development and learning for teachers of refugee students across the IGAD region.
The Working Groups then took the lead in the selection of two regions in each country where the pilot project would take place. In Ethiopia, the two regions are Gambella and Somali; in Sudan, the regions are: White Nile, Gedaref (clustered with Kassala). In Uganda, the regions are Western Uganda and Western Nile.
