By Felix Oketcho
In abid to address learning challenges amidst Covid-19 pandemic, Canada based educationist Rosa Mushega is set to officially launch Teaching for Success programme in Uganda come this December.
Teaching for Success is an Organization that provides highly effective teaching strategies for teachers in Primary Schools, Secondary Schools and Teacher Training Colleges, through professional development workshops.
“Our aim is to equip teachers through professional development, to cognitively engage students in their learning, in order to increase student achievement and success,” Rosa Mushega said.
Rosa Mushega’s passion for education began at an early age in the city of Kampala where she was raised. She studied at Kitante Primary School and Gayaza High School. At the tender age of seven, Rosa was inspired to become an educator by her Grandmother, who was a teacher at Bweranyangi Girls school, and her Grandfather, who was a headmaster at Bweranyangi Boys school.
Rosa has been an educator in Canada for over 15 years. She has taught various grades from elementary to secondary school and is currently a Special Education Resources Specialist. Her current role involves but is not limited to building capacity and supporting school administrators and teaching staff. In addition, she delivers school-based programs for high needs students, provides teachers with effective strategies to support student learning, assists with ongoing assessments, and liaises with external service agencies like social work, psychological services and speech and language pathologists.
Rosa founded Teaching for Success organization to provide professional development workshops and consultancy services for teachers in Nursery, Primary, Secondary Schools, and Teacher Training Colleges.
Rosa is a double major degree holder of Mathematics and Statistics from the London Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, and a graduate of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto. OISE is Canada’s only all-graduate institute of teaching, learning and research and also, the third highest ranked educational institution globally by QS world rankings.
Her passion is transferring her expertise to teachers and administrators, in order to give them opportunities to develop their pedagogical skills and implement best practices throughout their careers. This enables educators to promote student achievement and success through student engagement.
Rosa works with educators to create school cultures with authentic learning that focus on real world issues, problems and applications instead of rote learning. Her pedagogical philosophy engages students and motivates them to learn new concepts and skills and prepares them to succeed in higher education institutions and their future careers.
“Rosa has chosen to work solely with educators in Uganda, through her company, Teaching for Success, a Canadian based online business. She is determined to invest the knowledge and skills she has acquired throughout her teaching career into the Ugandan education system. Rosa wants to give back to her home country and make a difference in the lives of students and yield indelible changes to improve the Ugandan education system, ”
“A school is as strong as its weakest teacher, just as a chain is as strong as its weakest link,” Rosa commented.
Rosa strongly believes that being proactive rather than reactive as this pandemic continues globally is of utmost importance for our nation Uganda.
She explains, “Many supports have been put in place to recoup lost learning time of our students in primary, secondary and tertiary schools, but the lack of technology currently remains an insurmountable hurdle. The inequity of the haves and have-nots is of great concern, however, the efforts to reach learners through television and radios is a great first step.”
She continues, “Students need to receive feedback based on what they have learned or ask questions to clarify their understanding if they are learning on Television or radio. Worse still, not everyone has access to a device (TV, radio, smartphone, laptop, tablet, desktop etc.), power is not accessible to every child, the internet is not always reliable, and many people are unable to afford enough data for sustained learning. Unfortunately, the poor have been marginalized in many private schools as they move on with e-learning models that are inequitable. Given that we cannot predict how long the global pandemic will last, we need to work towards finding appropriate equitable solutions to support the diversity of students in Uganda and leave no child behind.”
Going forward, Rosa suggests that Uganda creates a two- tier learning system where those that do not have access to appropriate devices and Wi-Fi can still learn at the same level.
“Students who are not learning online and are studying from home, could have their parents or guardians pick up and deliver their work, or schools can facilitate the delivery and pick up of student work, at a central location once a week, for an affordable price. Alternatively, students can transfer to schools closer to home,” Rosa explains.
Rosa provides professional development workshops and consultancy services to supplement current teaching and learning models, and leave no child behind, by supporting learning for all students. With her company, Teaching for Success, she continues to prepare teachers for the future re-opening of schools by proactively providing crucial services to benefit Ugandan teachers, and promote student achievement and success.
