Morgan ZINTEC Teachers’ College has been commended for integrating ICT into the student learning environment at a time when education systems were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These remarks were made by the Education for Health and Wellbeing National Programme Specialist at UNESCO ROSA, Mr Lucas Halimani while officiating
the handover of ICT equipment at the institution. He went on to note that “The health and well-being of young people is an important investment a country can make; more so as this cadre of young people will impact successive generations as teachers!” Pre-service teacher training plays a key role in preparing future teachers to deliver effective sexuality education and HIV prevention education to children and young people in schools. At the same time, it has the power to protect student teachers from HIV infection, early and unintended pregnancy and Gender-based violence by changing their own knowledge levels, attitudes and behaviours. The event took place on Monday 4 April 2022 at Morgan ZINTEC Teachers’ College, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Hitherto, the dominant mode of teaching and learning at Morgan ZINTEC College has been face-to-face and most of the available teaching and learning resources are in print format. The need for digital resources is thus very timely and important for the institution. The partnership between UNESCO and Morgan ZINTEC College included technical support to digitize content for the Health and Life Skills Education course and training lecturers on digitally enriched education.
Dr. Zendah, the Principal of the institution expressed gratitude to UNESCO for the continued commitment to working with teachers’ colleges on Health and Life Skills Education. He noted that with the support of UNESCO, the Health and Life Skills Education course was the first to introduce online learning in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Morgan ZINTEC College introduced Google Classroom as an institution-wide Learning Management System.
The equipment which included a Laptop, Projector, and Smart Interactive Board will help the institution in delivering the Health and Life Skills Education lessons virtually.
The handover ceremony was witnessed by the Principal, Vice-Principal and Heads of departments at the college.
The digitization initiative is part of the programme, Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future (O3) which supports the delivery of good quality comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) that empowers adolescents and young people and builds agency, while developing the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and competencies required for preventing HIV, reducing early and unintended pregnancies, and eliminating gender-based violence. The O3 programme is run in partnership with ministries of education across the 33 countries in which the programme is implemented. The programme benefits from the generous support of the governments of Sweden, Ireland, Norway, and France, as well as the Packard Foundation.
For more information about UNESCO Education for Health and Wellbeing programmes in Zimbabwe, please contact Lucas Halimani (l.halimani@unesco.org)
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