Engen, in partnership with Leap Africa, is upskilling its Engen Maths and Science School (EMSS) teachers to prepare them for our rapidly evolving digital world.With the Covid-19 pandemic forcing education systems to adapt and find alternatives to face-to-face teaching, mastering e-learning methods is becoming an increasingly important part of a teacher’s skillset.
“As the future remains uncertain, it is essential to upskill and empower our EMSS educators with best practice e-Teaching tools and skills that optimise the online learning environment,” comments Unathi Magida, Engen’s Transformation and Stakeholder Engagement Manager.
The teacher training programme has been divided into two phases.
Phase One provides e-Learning teaching methodologies, which aim to empower teachers and provide them with the requisite skills to optimise their online teaching performance.“The programme takes special cognisance of the specific needs and many challenges faced by schools in poor urban and rural communities,” explains Magida.
Like Phase One, Phase Two also runs for two months, but shifts focus to curriculum application and educational kits, with the aim being for the teachers to be able to expose their learners to cutting edge technological advancements and to get them to practically engage with technology.
Adds Magida: “This phase focuses on artificial Intelligence (AI), which includes an introduction to robotics and coding, and will also enable teachers to train other educators once the course is completed.“Using innovative hybrid games such as Scottie Go, for example, will provide teachers with interactive and fun ways to introduce coding and programming to learners.”
The Engen Maths and Science School programme is a national initiative that addresses key skills shortages in the engineering and technical fields by providing free supplementary Maths, Science and English classes to learners from grades 10-12 at ten centres across South Africa.
The teachers training course forms part of the EMSS programme.
“Our EMSS programme has run for over 33 years and strives to instil a learning environment that focuses on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) subjects,” says Magida.
“Engen is committed to building tomorrow’s leaders and if we want to ensure that the youth of tomorrow are prepared for a rapidly changing world, we need to ensure that they have the right mix of skills, to reach their full potential.”
EMSS classes are currently held in Cape Town (at Belgravia Secondary and Manzomthombo Secondary), Port Elizabeth, East London, Cala, Johannesburg, and Durban (at Fairvale High School, Ganges High School, Howard College, and Mangosuthu University of Technology).
