Bussing Our Continent

 

Travelling for four months through Southern Africa is the latest innovation in an already challenging three-year teacher training programme at ADPP’s 14 Schools for the Teachers of the Future in Angola. From April – July 2013, 550 trainee teachers and their instructors from the EPF schools in the south of Angola carried out the trip, while the 500 trainees from the north are travelling in the period August- November 2013. The future primary teachers plan and execute a journey of investigation, insight and inspiration, where they are tested on a daily basis. They undertake research into the human, social, economic and political conditions in the southern African region. They learn to be mobile and flexible both mentally and physically, moving from place to place, country to country, theme to theme. They also learn to solve problems and resolve conflicts, building a sense of team spirit that will prove important during their teacher training and in their future lives.

2013 saw more than 1,050 students from 14 EPF schools travel by bus through Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. Not only was the trip an experience for life for the students, but it was also an opportunity for them to act as ambassadors wherever they went.

The buses in which the students travelled were equipped as mobile classrooms. Tents and kitchen equipment were brought to set up camp at each new stopping place. The students visited farmers in remote villages, officials in major towns and cities, mines, ports, factories and other industries, schools and universities. They exchanged knowledge and culture with everyone they encountered on the way, and had time to play sport and discover the wildlife and nature of Southern Africa. Enriched by their experiences and brimming with new knowledge and ideas, the students returned to their schools to analyse and prepare this information for a wider audience, giving talks and making presentations in their respective provinces.