INVEST Africa/Success Wall

What do policy makers say?
Honestly speaking teaching is getting more exciting. I created a class email and am posting all my notes there. I am no longer wasting time dictating the notes. The students write from the Internet at their own pace and then we discuss. I am saving 50% of my time. Come next term we will discuss over Facebook. Flexible ni mambo yote! (Flexible is everything!) - Agnes Karambu Maigallo TTTI, Kenya.

What do teachers say?
For a teacher like me, the use of flexible and blended learning and teaching means students are more motivated. This is because they participate directly in guiding their own learning. The quality of teaching is also greatly enhanced. - Jeremiah Agira, KTTC, Kenya.

By embracing FSD initiatives my teaching career has been rejuvenated immensely. My trainees no longer omplain of old tools, machinery and equipment used for training. This is because I can now access for them nearly all teaching aids online. I am able to shoot, edit and show video clips to my audience using skills acquired through FSD initiatives. As a Champion of FSD, I have improved on the enrolment in my department. We have reached out to the informal sector through short courses thus addressing some issues considered as national challenges. - Francis Njoroge Macharia, TTTI, Kenya.

FSD is gradually changing my way of instruction from boredom to attentiveness. As a practical teacher with a class size of 100, I used to put the students into groups of 10 and take each group in turn through one practical lesson. But FSD video and audio training have made it easy and more interesting because all the activities are recorded on the CD, I project it in class and we discuss it and they ask questions and respond to them. And they are given a CD each to continue watching in their homes and hostels. So, instead of me using 10 days for a lesson, I now use a day. And students now feel confident in their planning to carry out their practical. - Joyce Quaye, KP, Ghana.

We meet the needs of working people who can’t study full-time and we earn income to contribute to improved learning resources. INVEST is a lifeline for us; we receive a grant from government which is less than 10% of our operating costs. ODL courses help us to balance our institutional budget. - Pascal Chewe, Principal, TVTC, Kenya.

Since becoming a INVEST Africa Key Institution in 2010, we have increased the number of learners and training programmes we offer. We now have full-time, part-time and holiday-based programmes, and we are in the process of launching distance learning programmes. - John Mwawaza, Principal, CIT, Kenya.

What do managers say?
Instead of investing heavily in constructing more classroom blocks, ICT could reduce learning costs by introducing FaB approaches such as the radio and mobile phones programmes to reach the informal sector. - Edward Caesar Mansal, Director of Academics, GTTI, Kenya.

Flexible and blended skills promote strategies that can be implemented to reach the excluded and disadvantaged groups such as women and youth who are mostly engaged in informal entrepreneurial activities with little or no training available to them. These groups may have been marginalised to a large extent by the traditional system. - Lenah Sambu, RVTTI, Kenya.

Resources

 * Blockquote template - http://wikieducator.org/Template:Cquote
 * INVEST Africa Brochure, 2013