A new school year is underway at ADPP Teacher Training Schools and polytechnics. The disruption and frequent reorganisation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic that characterised 2020-2021 has left its mark but in some ways, the schools and the students have emerged stronger than ever, with consolidated education and sanitation systems and recognition for the efforts made to control the pandemic.

When schools returned on 1 September, there were 3000 students at ADPP’s 15 Teacher Training Schools and 1500 students at the eight polytechnics. Following celebrations of the start of the academic year, one of the first events to be marked was World Literacy Day.

For many of the schools, September is harvest time in the vegetable garden. As future primary teachers at rural schools, agricultural and horticultural skills are important for students at ADPP Teacher Training Schools. Equally important, fresh produce supplements the diet at the schools and instils healthy eating habits among the students.

In other education news, a former student from Team 2017 at the ADPP Teacher Training School Benguela, André Francisco Ngola, has just published a collection of poems based on his period of teacher training. The title of the collection “Café Evening” brings to mind the tradition of cultural evenings at ADPP schools. 

On quite a different tack, Women in Action projects and their contribution to the socioeconomic empowerment of adolescent girls and young women featured as a case study of good practice in an online event on 22 September, organised by the European Training Foundation (ETF) and Skillman on Work-Based Learning (WBL). Watch the webinar here, with ADPP’s intervention just after the 1 hour mark.