Everyone benefits from child friendly teaching methods

“One of our boy’s mother died. His father said he needed him to drop out of school and start working. The boy answered: I need to go to school, it’s as important as my name.” – Mr. Ibrahim, Teacher, DEC Primary School, Buya village.

It’s Wednesday morning, we are leaving Makeni for a 45 minute drive to the village of Foredugu to meet with teachers and children that have benefited from the CCTT and EMI programmes. We are all eager to get on the road, going out to the school and seeing first-hand how this works; it’s what we are here for.

“When we were working with the old method I felt like an instructor and the children felt very ashamed when they answered wrong. Children were in fear. Now, when working with the CCTT method the children feel empowerd, like they take care of their own education, like they are doing it themselves.” – Mr Dumbuy, Teacher

“In some schools they still use coporal punishment, using the cane to correct students. When we meet teachers we explain to them the benefit of not hitting children. When they say they still need the cane to point the board, we say, use your finger instead” – Mr. Alhaji

“Now working with the CCTT method it really feels like the children dare to challenge us, they even teach us sometimes. Like when I talk about different fishing techniques, the children contribute with examples of the local techniques used in thier own community and that adds to all our knowledge.” – Mr. Ibrahim, Teacher, DEC Primary School, Buya village