In Ethiopia, online courses were previously seen as somewhat elitist and inefficient methods of teaching. The MOPEDE project changed these attitudes and developed vocational teacher training to become more student-centred and blended.
Decorative photo.
Photo: MOPEDE

Vocational teacher education in Ethiopia has been slowly transitioning to a student-centred pedagogy. This is new to the country, as the dominant teaching method was for a long time based on rote learning and memorisation.

Graham Burns, the coordinator of the MOPEDE project that concluded in Ethiopia in August, gives an example:

“You can learn multiplication by memorising that two times two is four. In student-centred learning, students learn how the multiplication table works, and once they understand it, they can deduce that four times seven is twenty-eight and why multiplication works the way it does.”

Burns works as a project manager at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. He was the coordinator of the HEI-ICI project MOPEDE.

Another innovation brought to Ethiopia by MOPEDE was blended learning, where part of the materials are provided online, and part of the teaching takes place face-to-face.

“This way, students don’t have to travel long distances to attend every workshop; they can study at home or in a nearby library.”

Attitudes Changed

The project’s partner in Ethiopia was the Technical and Vocational Training Institute (FTVTI), which made over 90 of its courses student-centred and blended during the project.

“The institute’s employees did a tremendous job of reshaping the way education is delivered in a very short time,” says Burns.

The Ethiopian coordinator of the project, Matiyas Teshome, sees the reform of education as a great success story.

“Online teaching was previously seen as something of a luxury, and many teachers viewed it as an additional burden on top of their regular work,” Teshome says.

Students also complained about difficulties in accessing the online resources.

Graham Burns notes that online education in Ethiopia also had a reputation as being a lazy option.

“I think it was a kind of defence mechanism. The teachers’ own technical skills were lacking, and there was a fear of technology.”

However, the institute took the reform seriously, and technical difficulties were gradually resolved. The pandemic also played a role, as it quickly dispelled the elitist reputation of online learning.

“Now attitudes and views have changed,” says Teshome.

Inflation Made Purchases Difficult

The project also aimed to build a digital resource centre where teachers could develop online materials. This proved to be challenging.

“First, the pandemic hit, and prices skyrocketed,” says Graham Burns. “Then the Ethiopian civil war started, which further increased prices and made equipment procurement extremely difficult.”

Fortunately, the institute also had other partners: the German development cooperation agency GIZ, the Korean development cooperation agency KOICA and the World Bank. All were grappling with the same challenges. Eventually, the various partners joined forces and the digital centre of excellence was set up: one partner financed the walls, another provided cameras and audio equipment, and a third contributed computers.

“The result is much better than what we could have achieved alone,” says Burns.

Matiyas Teshome adds that while the equipment is helpful, it is useless without skills.

“I think the most important thing was that this project focused on capacity building. Skills are far more important than equipment.”

Regionally Recognised Qualifications in the Future?

The MOPEDE project has now concluded, but cooperation between Finnish and Ethiopian vocational higher education institutions continues.

Graham Burns reveals that a new project application is in progress, aimed at harmonising regional vocational teacher education.

“The East African Community (EAC) countries have signed an agreement aimed at facilitating labour mobility within the region.”

The idea is that, for example, the training of an electrician in Rwanda would be recognised in Kenya, similar to how it works in Europe today.

“There is still much work to be done before this becomes a reality, but our goal is to develop teacher training so that the FTVTI becomes a regional centre of excellence for teacher education.”

 

Text: Esa Salminen