Sub-regional Teacher-training Course for the World Heritage in Young Hands Education Kit in Swahili language

Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania, 14-16 March 2005

Organizers

The UNESCO Dar es Salaam Office, in collaboration with the UNESCO Harare Office and under guidance of UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

Event

The workshop was convened to familiarize the participating teachers from the sub-region with the World Heritage in young Hands Education Kit published in Swahili in October 2004.

The workshop objectives:

Short term:

• Introduce the World Heritage Education Kit in Swahili and in English to teachers in the sub-region
• Develop knowledge and awareness about World Heritage among teachers and teacher trainers
• Exchange views and experiences about working with students on the subject of World heritage
• Explore possibilities of introducing the Kit into school curricula

Long term:

• Raise awareness and forge new attitudes among young people to preserving World Heritage
• Help young people acquire new skills needed to preserve heritage sites
• Help preserve Swahili as one of the most spoken African languages

Workshop Recommendations

The Teachers' Pledge

• Prepare individual reports from the workshop and distribute them to relevant authorities;
• Raise awareness on World Heritage Education among fellow staff, teacher-trainers and teachers;
• implement World Heritage awareness-racing activities through creating school clubs, visiting existing clubs, encouraging visits to national and World Heritage sites organizing debates in classes, school competitions and exhibits, and marking of United Nations Days

The teachers requested from their national authorities/ministers to:

• Appoint co-ordinations/focal points for World Heritage programs;
• formulate clear orientations and/or policies to integrate World Heritage education into school curricula, as well as in other relevant national programs;
• support the sustainability of World Heritage Education by organizing teacher-training workshops at all levels;
• provide for specific budgets to fund World Heritage education activities

The teachers requested from UNESCO to

• Continue to work in conjunction with governments to facilitate exchange programs on World Heritage education;
• encourage governments to authorize, where necessary, fund-raising activities in favour of World Heritage education;
• Produce and circulate free relevant materials to help World Heritage education and awareness-raising on national levels;
• ensure follow-up of these recommendations with governments.

Outcome

All participants agreed on a need of a coordinated approach on a national level. Specially a coordination on the level of ministries should be established in order to make progress in World Heritage education and awareness-raising among the young people. The participants also stressed that an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to teaching World Heritage makes the subject easily adaptable to most disciplines.

Participants

Participants of the workshop were teachers, teacher-trainers and curriculum developers, as well as representatives of the National Commissions from UR Tanzania and Kenya and UNESCO.

Altogether 30 participants  took part in the Workshop.

Countries presented

Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Comoros and Kenya.