The EU funded Support to the Education Sector in Sierra Leone (SESSiL) has begun the second of three workshops geared towards enhancing distance education programs in Sierra Leone. Educators from six teacher education institutions (Port Loko University College, Eastern Polytechnic, Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science & Technology, Njala University, Freetown Teacher College, and Milton Margai College of Education & Technology) have met in Port Loko, where from the 8th to the 11th November they discussed how they can maximize the potential of their individual distance education programmes to better support the Free, Quality Education initiative.
Distance Teacher Education workshop, Group work session
The workshops fall within the European Union’s wider commitment towards supporting the Ministry of Basic and senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) to improve the quality of pre-service teacher preparation. Across the world, more countries are turning to distance education as a convenient, flexible and multimodal means of upgrading the skills of untrained teachers, continuing teachers’ education opportunities or helping teachers gain advanced degrees or certification. In Sierra Leone the Teachers Certificate by distance learning was launched by the Freetown Teachers College, with nearly 1,000 students. In a review of the distance teacher education programme, Distance Education expert Dr Alison Mead Richardson notes that the institutions collectively have reported more than 6,200 distance
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