IOP abroad: practical physics training for Ethiopian teachers

As part of the IOP’s involvement in Ethiopia, a  teacher training session was held last month to demonstrate a range of equipment to Ethiopian physics teachers. The equipment was subsequently donated to the participating schools.

Although the training was led by Christine Cleave (Head of Physics, Derby High School), he was assisted by one of the Ethiopian teachers, Endale Bogale, who had received his own training in 2008. Endale’s involvement shows a step towards making the project sustainable and helps to indicate ownership by the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, which is in the process of developing training centres for physics teachers.

The IOP  training had representative teachers from Ethiopia’s four main regions, each of which will eventually have workshop/training centres with an overseeing centre based in Addis Ababa. The IOP contribution to the development of practical physics for schools in Ethiopia will continue by supporting the development of the training and workshop centres.