UNESCO World Teachers' Day prize­winner mentors Cambodian
teachers to success ­ Zimbabwe Star
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UNESCO World Teachers' Day prize­winner mentors Cambodian teachers to
success
UNESCO Wednesday 5th October, 2016
'Teachers feel happy and motivated when they see results. They are like farmers growing rice in a field. They
feel best when they see the first little green shoots. When children improve in learning so dramatically it is like
harvest time,' said Phan Sophen, Education Programme Manager for See Beyond Borders, one of the two
laureates awarded the 2016 UNESCO­Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Prize for Outstanding Practice and
Performance in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Teachers.
The $300,000 award, which is given every two years and is supported by H.E. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al­
Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates, forms part of UNESCO's celebrations for World Teachers' Day 2016. This
year the other prize goes to the University of Malaya, Malaysia.
The See Beyond Borders' Teach the Teacher mentoring programme in Cambodia is geared to developing
communities of teachers committed to quality teaching and ongoing professional development.
Mr Sophen said: 'Our goal has always been to develop a community of quality teachers. The initial idea was to
provide training on how to teach maths more effectively, to run the mentoring system in the school and offer
ongoing support to teachers in workshops. Once the core people understand and can implement the concept we
rely on the multiplier effect.'
In 2013 the programme reaped further rewards with pass rates for grade 1 to 3 students in maths increasing
from 48 per cent in 2013 to 65 per cent in 2015.
'We have done a great job to improve the quality of education and we are so proud to see the results. Now that
we have this experience with maths the goal is to extend the same methodology to other subject. When we have
the money we will continue to deliver the core programme in Cambodia. We are a charity. We don't have much
money. Hopefully this honour will help us attract more funding. We have more of a profile no and we want to
concentrate on the sustainability of the programme.'
Mentoring and motivation brings greater confidence in the classroom
Ms Prak Sokunthy, a primary school teacher who participated in SeeBeyondBorders' Teach the Teacher
programme, said: 'About three years ago, I was not a skilful Mathematics teacher. I did not know ...what I should
teach. I just taught what I myself understood from the text books.
'Fortunately, SeeBeyondBorders has run a Teach the Teacher and Mentoring programme in my school for three
years and has recently started the transition programme. I was very lucky to be selected as a mentor and I have
two mentees to work with. I got a lot of training on Math concepts and how to give support to mentees. I feel
confident teaching Maths with clear learning objectives and using concrete materials with a lot of fun learning
games during the lesson.'
World Teachers' Day will be celebrated at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris and around the world on October 5
under the theme 'Valuing teachers, Improving their Status' and will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1966
ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. As well as the laureates ceremony the event
in Paris will include panel discussions and a poster exhibition.
Links
'
UNESCO and Teachers
UNESCO Hamdan Prize
World Teachers Day 2016
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Featured Story
Dead Namibian pangolin pup pic shows horror of
this cruel trade
Harare ­ A tiny pangolin curled up in the palm of a hand.
Dead.
This is the heart­wrenching picture that shows the horror of
pangolin poaching in southern Africa, where a CITES meeting
in Johannesburg resolved last week to ban the trade in all
eight species of this shy nocturnal creature.
See Picture below
Pangolin champions and conservationists across the region
and beyond rejoiced. But for this baby, taken from poachers
in Namibia, it was too late.
The pup's mother was rescued less than a week ago, said
Maria Diekmann, the founder of the Rare and Endangered
Species Trust (REST) in Otjiwarongo in the central­north of
Namibia.
When Diekmann opened the metal trunk the mother was
being kept in, she found this dead pup too. It would have
been four or five days old, she told News24.
Well­known for her conservation work with Cape Griffon
vultures, Diekmann says REST has also been involved in
pangolin rescues and rehabilitation for nearly 13 years,
though more intensively for the last four. She estimates that
about 35 pangolins have passed through her hands.
The anger over this cruel trade does not abate with each
rescue.
As she opened the trunk, noticing how terribly hot it was
inside and the totally unsuitable rotten vegetables and sour
pap that had been left for the pangolins to eat (pangolins'
favourite food is ants) her frustration surged again.
'I was shocked'
She said: "Who puts two animals in a sealed locked trunk and
drives for hours with them in the boot of a car in this hot sun?
"I was shocked, then so terribly sad I had not managed [to
save the pup]. And then so angry," she said.
Pangolins are trafficked for their scales and meat, mainly to fuel the Asian trade.
The pup's mother is now doing well, Diekmann says. On Wednesday she was released with a tracker and was
likely to be out all night.
She will be tracked daily for the next five days.
"Then hopefully she will move to a huge farm further from town," Diekmann said.
On average REST manages to intercept two trafficked mother pangolins with pups per year. Sadly, "most are
born premature due to the stress of capture and holding by poachers. They don't make it," she says.
There are happier endings. "Honey Bun", a pup rescued with
her mother last year, is still with REST.
"She loves her tummy rubbed. She walks for three to four
hours daily foraging for her own food. The two times she got
away from her walker, she returned home on her own that
evening," Diekmann said. "She's amazing."
Pangolins are notorious escape artists and Diekmann is
planning to build a new enclosure for the rescues to stay
during rehabilitation, funds permitting.
Diekmann says no­one has been reported arrested in this
latest case.
The Tikki Hywood Trust in Zimbabwe, where pangolin
poaching is a big problem, reported last month that at least
81 pangolin traffickers had been caught since the beginning
of the year.
Source: News24
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