Community Health students at the Polytechnic ADPP Cazenga recently enjoyed a guest lecture given by a health specialist from Cajueiras Hospital, Dr Sonia. A former teacher at ADPP’s School for Street Children in Cazenga, she well understands the benefits of educating young people om health matters. During the talk, she explained about the workings of intensive care units. 

Meanwhile at the Polytechnic ADPP Huambo, who better to tell students about the natural resources in Huambo Province than the Head of the Department of Natural Resources, which forms part of the Provincial Office for the Economy and Integrated Development. His talk was thoroughly enjoyed by the students, and in particular the exhibits he brought along.

Literacy training is in full swing across all Farmers Clubs projects, as here in Luanda. Basic literacy is both a fundamental human right as well as a means to smooth the path for people to become more active citizens and develop their own micro enterprises.

After two successful phases in Luanda, the STEM project is expanding to Bengo Province, where directors of teacher training schools and polytechnics attended a presentation. The aim once more is to provide theoretical and practical training for teachers, as well as STEM manuals and basic equipment, with the ultimate goal of providing better lessons for their students. The project continues in Luanda

Thousands of school children are benefiting from the additional skills, and renewed motivation and enthusiasm that the in-service training course engenders in participants. Primary school teachers in Gambos and Bibala received their certificates in December on completion of the 40 Pedagogical Sessions.  Berta Morais, Head of Huíla Provincial Education Office, spoke of the impact ADPP has in Huíla and Namibe, during the graduation ceremony for 154 in-service teachers in Huíla. In Bibala, Namibe, 73 teachers graduated.

A new school year is underway at ADPP Teacher Training Schools and polytechnics. The disruption and frequent reorganisation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic that characterised 2020-2021 has left its mark but in some ways, the schools and the students have emerged stronger than ever, with consolidated education and sanitation systems and recognition for the efforts made to control the pandemic.

When schools returned on 1 September, there were 3000 students at ADPP’s 15 Teacher Training Schools and 1500 students at the eight polytechnics. Following celebrations of the start of the academic year, one of the first events to be marked was World Literacy Day.

For many of the schools, September is harvest time in the vegetable garden. As future primary teachers at rural schools, agricultural and horticultural skills are important for students at ADPP Teacher Training Schools. Equally important, fresh produce supplements the diet at the schools and instils healthy eating habits among the students.

In other education news, a former student from Team 2017 at the ADPP Teacher Training School Benguela, André Francisco Ngola, has just published a collection of poems based on his period of teacher training. The title of the collection “Café Evening” brings to mind the tradition of cultural evenings at ADPP schools. 

On quite a different tack, Women in Action projects and their contribution to the socioeconomic empowerment of adolescent girls and young women featured as a case study of good practice in an online event on 22 September, organised by the European Training Foundation (ETF) and Skillman on Work-Based Learning (WBL). Watch the webinar here, with ADPP’s intervention just after the 1 hour mark.