New Water In The Desert Assembly NWIDA

MTSS/APC Teachers’ Training Workshop

January 26-30, 2009

Formal Opening Program – January 26, 2009 at 11:00AM

Remarks: Purpose of Training Workshop

By Reverend Kortu K. Brown, Church Pastor/New Water in the Desert Assembly. 

Introduction

ALL PROTOCOLS OBSERVED

Thank God! For this allowed opportunity to sharpen the skills of teachers of schools including MTSS, APC, etc from Brewerville and other communities. Thanks to Liberia Education Trust (LET) for this worthwhile partnership. This is a clear indication of not just a project execution irrespective of relevance or impact but a desire to impact on the overall growth and development of the country. So we welcome you’ll and thank you for coming!

Teacher as Agent of Change

The 15 years civil war destroyed and delayed the progress of the country in all respect. Schools and the whole teaching – learning process got affected. Learning centers got destroyed, trained teachers killed or forced out of the country while students themselves suffered no less. An uprooted, penniless people overwhelmed with family and other challenges were compelled to re-enter the classroom after the cessation of hostilities. To compound the problem, “emptied spaces” created by the flight – outside of the country for safety or to greener pasture and/or the extermination of teachers have been occupied by people unfamiliar with the techniques of, and sometimes, the compassion for, teaching.

We are told that the speed and destructive manner in which the civil war was executed was partly due to ignorance. People still wondered why school buildings were burnt or completely destroyed. What fed such thoughts! Why were there not deliberate attempts to preserve or protect centers of learning knowing that the reconstruction and development of post-war countries would always be a Challenge? Or didn’t we know so!

 Then the question of [former] child soldiers! Why were young children abused in pursuit of the naked ambitions of power-greed men and women in our country? Imagine, people, many of whom never built a “kongo” i.e. a primary school, personal dwelling place, etc in this country, all jump to the frail, working tirelessly to destroy, and/or cast aspersion on the image of, the country. The whole mindset of the children got ruined. Values emphasizing hard-work, fair-play, good neighborliness, respect for authorities i.e. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord…” [Ephesians 6:1] amongst others were pushed aside. A new and systematically sought-after paradigm [mode, example] was introduced in our society i.e. raped and killed and get rich, etc.

In the period of our civil war, while we “slept”, new challenges emerged. The internet and computer took center stage in everyday life. Soaring prices and food insecurity arose.  

The United Nations Millennium Summit was held in 2000 when 189 world leaders issued the Millennium Declaration known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The goal is to bridge the development divide, end poverty and extreme hunger, eradicate illiteracy, empower women, achieve gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop global partnerships for development – all by 2015.

 The whole question about how we adequately respond to growing hunger in our midst remains hard to pin down as far as a clear national strategy is concerned notwithstanding the many appreciable activities ongoing. For example, what’s the strategy to get every individual and community involve in efforts to achieve food security at the individual household and community levels? How does this tie to the teaching –learning process provoke the lingering concern of how can hunger children be attentive in class and/or learn adequately. For example, in our church school, I have had students come tell me how difficult it was for them to find food to eat the previous day. “I came to school this morning hungry, Reverend, because I didn’t eat yesterday. You just don’t understand, Reverend!” Inclusion of such initiatives in our teaching-learning process could also help advance the culture of work amongst our children?

 

The Challenges

How do we meet these challenges? The challenges of our schools operating unconnected to life in their communities! The challenges of the limits i.e. incentives, timely actions to improve the educational system! The challenges of a “defective” mindset that permeates every fabric of our common Liberian humanity! Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between those who have been to school from those who have not. They think, talk and act the same way. How do we then re-arrange ourselves and thoughts so we are able to match up with the rest of the world that is not waiting on us? How can our schools help in the fight against hunger in the country, for example? New Water in the Desert through her relief and development department, Church Aid Inc.,  in 2007 and 2008 provided more than ten thousand (10,000) packets of vegetable seeds worth more than US$25,000 to the Ministry of Education for distribution to schools throughout the country to help them “sow seeds to fight hunger”.  Do our students and/or teachers even know about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals?

How can we change our attitude of wanting other people to do for us what we can do for ourselves? How can we improve our teaching-learning process in terms of content, style and focus, amongst others so that our schools help us achieve our national goals? How can we get children respecting their parents, teachers and other leaders of the people again?

 

The Solution

Society must NOW awake to its challenges and provide guidance to, and assurance for, the expectations and aspirations we share for this great country. Teachers, pastors, evangelists, journalists, health workers and other community leaders must all rise to the challenge and lend a helping hand. To achieve, retraining to match current challenges may be necessary.

 The Hebrew language uses one root, lamad for two words “to teach” and “to learn”. In Hebrew culture, the teacher has not taught unless the student has learned. All learning and teaching are ultimately to be found in the fear of the LORD. The goal of teaching is not the impartation of facts but the changing of lives. Can we emphasize the lamad method of learning where the classroom becomes a place of impassioned [fervent, ardent, heartfelt] discussions and the sharing of real life experiences? A place where we meet our Creator and share in the life experiences of others. A place where we practice truth and learn about values that change lives? A place not separated from life but is actively part of our lives? What a “PLACE” requiring so much dedication and commitment!

Permit me therefore to ask some heart renting questions therefore:

       i.                     Are our students learning?

ii.                   If not, why?

iii.                  If yes, how come spelling, writing and subject-verb connections are such big challenges for even students graduating from high school and college in Liberia? Maybe because there are no libraries. Thank God our church school is working on a US$50,000 (fifty thousand) material resource center to include reading, production, computer, internet and laboratory facilities to help upgrade the learning process in Brewerville/Virginia

 No doubt teachers maybe teaching in Liberia: But for what – what’s their focus? To impart FACTS or CHANGE in the lives of the children where a high school education becomes durable in terms of the output of the learners and credit of the overall education system?

This academic clinic is an effort in that direction with the support of LET and the Apostolic Pentecostal Church International. This workshop should help improve the teaching-learning environment by addressing:

1. How to help the teacher obtain a clear sense of direction in what he or she sets, or, is assigned, to do
2. How to increase the willingness of teachers to try new procedures, and
3. How to give the teacher greater security in the process of change, amongst others.

Please take advantage of it.

God bless!  Rev. Kortu K. Brown

 

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