Bye Bye SIRIRI

Bye Bye SIRIRI

With the end of the week approaching, so too did the teachers training session come to an end. The 200 participants from Bozoum and the 50 from Bouar could, during the six very intense days, learn more about the new method "Learning with fun", which the NGO SIRIRI.ORG of Prague has developed and offered.

Starting from five simple basic principles (demonstration, practical and useful teaching, cooperation, reflection and evaluation), the method develops in elementary school children the ability to understand, reflect and learn in a valid way. The education system in the Central African Republic is paralyzed by the high number of students and so few teachers (classes of 100, 200, even 300 children), and at the same time by a teaching method that relies heavily on learning by rote memory. Reading is also often replaced by memorizing. Together with the five principles, the "Learning with fun" method foresees, for the first years of school, not the use of French, but rather of the mother tongue, Sango. This innovation (expected but not implemented by the 1997 Education Act) allows children to read easily, and then move on to French with less difficulty. The training sessions in Bouar and Bozoum ended on Saturday. The schools will begin soon, in just a few weeks time. The 250 teachers are really enthusiastic. For many it will be a new experience. For other teachers it will be the continuity of what they have already done in the past few years. After the first grade, they’ll continue to accompany the kids, helping them to move from Sango to French.

Sunday was a day off for the 14 friends, members of SIRIRI.ORG (Alice, Anežka, Barbora, Charlotte, Fabrice, Guillaume, Jana, Julie, Lenka 1 and Lenka 2, Mirka, Nicolas, Sophie, Thameur) who came from Prague and from France for this training course. In the afternoon I took them to visit the rice plantations, which are at the height of their growth.

On Monday I went with them to Bangui. The following day we visited Saint Paul, the little church on the shore of the river Oubangui, where in 1894 the first missionaries arrived. The river, in full rainy season, is quite impressive. On the opposite side of the river, just a short distance away is the Congo. In the afternoon we went to the airport.

Bye Bye SIRIRI!

fine della formazione
fin de la session de formation à Bozoum

visita alle risaie di Bozoum
Visite au Centre Rizicole de Bohoro

 

Bangui, di fronte al fiume Oubangui

Oubangui

Messa alla Nunziatura
Messe à la Nonciature

avanzamento lavori a Bozoum
l'avancement des travaux à Bozoum