10 Innovative ways African teachers can supplement their income.

           

 By  FAITH NYAMAI

The Covid 19 pandemic  exposed major gaps in the education sector in Africa with learners being forced to study at home.

Failure to integrate technology in learning left many children especially those in public schools disadvantaged  even as their counterparts in the private sector continued with their syllabus. Although some countries in Africa reopened schools, colleges, and universities in June, most of the countries have been cautious to reopen. 

In most of the countries, the education sector has been going through various transformation with countries adopting to the competency-based curriculum to enable learners acquire skills that will place them in global competition.

Education stakeholders and African leaders have been asking governments to increase budgetary allocation and increase resources in the education sector to make education more inclusive and accessible to all children.

According to head of ICT Zetech University Dan Njeru the rise of population, the permeation of literacy and availability of educational materials has led to the establishment of new learning institutions, both in private and public sectors, to meet the ever-increasing demand.

“Kenya in particular, being cognizant the leapfrogging opportunities that come with digital economy has ambitiously embarked on reconstructing the education system and curriculum. With the proposed Competency-based curriculum, both learners and educators are required to sharpen their digital skills and competences,” he said

Across the continent, teachers have resulted to using innovative ideas to keep learners in school after the education system was halted by the pandemic.

Below are ten innovative ways African teachers can supplement their incomes especially during this pandemic season.

Virtual teaching.

The closure of schools put pressure on teachers and governments across the world to engage learners in studies while at home.

Several companies have been developing different apps to help teachers teach their students.

For teachers to create a Google classroom, they create a class and include the emails of all their students.

The students are given a classroom code if not invited via email.

A teacher creates assignment and send it to the students, the students do and submit it back to the teacher. The teacher then grades the assignment and submits results.

Mr Njeru who is also helping teachers teach their students at home has created am app that is helping teachers.

“Experienced teachers should consider leveraging their skills and competences during this season to teach and train learners on particular skills especially practical skills,” Mr Njeru

Home schooling

Homeschooling is a key area which teachers should embrace during the pandemic. The programme enables teachers and parents to ensure learners continue with their studies while at home.

Teachers can use the programme to tuition their students and earn money while at home.

According to Sarah Maiwa, the homeschooling trainer in Africa, the programme builds confidence without necessarily putting pressure on them to pass exams.

The trainer, who is also a trained teacher has helped her two children to become more confident, honest and has built their integrity levels.

Among the advantages of homeschooling she said, is that it also helps fast learners to go their pace, unlike the conventional school system where all learners move together at once from one class to another.

“Homeschoolers are self-motivates as the system allows awards learners on merit. The learner sets her goal in a goal card and works hard to achieve them,” she said

 

Language training

In many African countries, the language barrier has remained a major challenge especially in rural areas where children use the local languages.

For a teacher, training children and adult learners who are unable to communicate fluently in either English, French, Germany, Swahili, or any other language is a key innovative idea that they should embrace.

According to Mr Njeru many Africans have considered learning at least one foreign language so as to compete favorably in the ever-evolving African market.

“Teachers who are teaching these languages at various levels should consider the larger public and offer online courses at a reasonable cost,” he said.

Creating  educational content

Learners, especially in institutions of higher learning have always relied on online tutorials, most of these tutorials are not developed from the African context and so educators should consider developing local content.

Mr Njeru said, teachers should be keen in developing various educational content such as tutorials, videos or voice recording and books that would benefit learners of different ages.

For primary and secondary school teachers, they should develop content that suits their learners depending on ages and level of study.

Online mentoring of students

The closure of learning institutions in Covid season has left learners, many of whom, are teenagers with lots of free time.

Mr Njeru said there is a need for such learners to be engaged in constructive forums where they not only receive constant guide on how to maximize the time they have but also be engaged in fun activities that can keep them focused.

“A students’ mentorship program online would be a good opportunity not only for a teacher to utilize his or her passion but also for the learners to be engaged in a more focused and constructive manner,” said Mr Njeru

Educational Website

The use of technology has become a a global necessity in the 21st century. Mr Njeru said any purposeful online community has resulted to be rewarding. Websites have been attracting traffic online with most of the young people getting into the internet to acquire different kinds of knowledge.

“Tech savvy teachers should consider developing their own websites and sell content either via affiliate marketing or direct selling educational electronic resources,” he said

Proofreader and Transcription

According to the ICT head, proofreading services are not only needed for academic documents but also for technical documents in various companies.

During the pandemic when many companies are considering virtual workers, a language teacher could consider to establish proofreading and transcription business, he said.

“With many companies holding virtual meetings, services such transcription of zoom meeting recordings, calendar management for executives among others would be valuable for teachers,” he said.

Virtual Teaching Assistant

During the Covid 19 pandemic, many instructors in institutions of higher learning appreciate a professional who can assist to convert their long developed content into formats that can be used in blended learning, these formats can be animated videos, PowerPoint presentations and of course multiple-choice questions for evaluations at various levels.

Mr Njeru said teachers should consider this as a venture during the Covid 19 pandemic season as they make an extra income.

“ To be a virtual teaching assistant, teachers should invest in technology as a way of improving on their skills, “he said.

Scholarship consultant

Even with learning processes being halted across many countries, many education enthusiast and learners are still looking for post-covid favorable scholarships to further their education.

Guiding and leading such people through various application processes would be a rewarding opportunity for teachers in this season as they wait for the opening of schools.

YouTube content creation

Content creators, comedians, and the entire entertainment industry has been seen as very proactive in developing content on YouTube.

“Teachers should consider being more intentional in creating such content for learners and earn income via YouTube and other social media platforms,” he said.

Globally, some teachers have invested in Youtube content and have students who subscribe to their channels to learn.

Recreational service providers for learners.

Musically inclined teachers should consider offering online classes to learners especially the young ones during this COVID season.

 Other recreational activities would be art and craft, fine arts, online musical instruments training among others.