Rose Lela Chiriswa
Rose Lela Chiriswa, a primary school teacher in Nairobi, Kenya, has been teaching for the past 31 years. “I just love being with the children,” she says of teaching.
“Children are very innocent. They confide in us, they tell us all their problems. Some are orphans, some have sick parents, some have been stigmatized because their parents are suffering from HIV. In this area, most of the students are coming from the slums.
“For them, they are happy to be in school because it’s an escape from the problems at home.
“Before the videos came, we had a problem. You could see that [students] really had not understood. Teachers did most of the talking. It was kind of boring. Now we have DLA, this retains students in school. [Students] look forward to having the DLA lessons. They ask questions. They are very interactive these days.
“Now, they see reality. They are able to relate, especially when we are talking about something like the digestive system. They even watch videos sometimes on Saturdays. They bring their friends along to watch the videos. Now they are coming together to see the videos, to learn from them, and they are teaching one another.
“[Training] has helped me improve as a teacher. I enjoyed the 21st century skills, whereby you have to collaborate, to be creative. I also look forward to having my DLA lesson.”