National Teachers’ College Mubende launches the annual Agri-thon event

National Teacher’s College (NTC) Mubende in partnership with VVOB has launched the Agri-thon, an educational competition, in November 2021.

The purpose of the Agri-thon is to equip student-teachers to teach agriculture practically. By participating in the Agri-thon, student-teachers year 1 Juniors gained valuable skills such as innovation, value addition, facilitation techniques etcetera.

The students also got to observe how educational competitions can be organised in the context of agricultural education.

VVOB has supported the agricultural department in organising this competition by offering technical support in running an educational competition, ICT solutions for distance learning and monitoring and evaluation efforts to draw lessons from this pilot.

The Agri-thon is a combination of agriculture and marathon, meaning the students participate in agricultural challenges over a longer period of time that requires stamina, skill and teamwork. Every participant gains from participating whilst outstanding participants and teams are recognised with prizes.

What has happened so far?During the period of school closure, two challenges were set out for student-teachers year 1 juniors. They were invited to conduct these challenges in their home communities and submit their work online via an automated WhatsApp channel or e-mail.

During the launch, students will work in teams to complete the final ‘live challenge’ in the student plots at the NTC Mubende. A team of judges will use a rubric to assess their work through observation and conversation. Parallel to these activities guests will embark on a tour through the college to learn more about innovations towards practical teaching in agriculture and beyond.

During the entire day we want to encourage the student-teachers to continue developing the agricultural, entrepreneurial, and pedagogical skills to teach agriculture practically when they become teachers.

What is VVOB

VVOB is a non-profit organisation with over 35 years of experience in improving the quality of education systems. VVOB currently has long-term partnerships with Ministries of Education in 9 countries (Cambodia, DR Congo, Ecuador, Rwanda, South Africa, Suriname, Vietnam, Zambia, and Uganda) and works with a range of education actors in Belgium.

VVOB’s vision is to strive for a sustainable world based on equal opportunities through equitable and quality education.

To this end, VVOB strengthens the capacity of those institutions that provide professional development for teachers and school leaders in four sub-sectors a) early childhood education, b) primary education, c) general secondary education and d) secondary technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

To realise these objectives, VVOB focuses on capacity development of its partners: ministries of education, teacher training institutions and organisations focusing on professional development.

Partners range from national and regional governments to institutions, individual schools, school leaders, teachers, and students.