In the second week of March, 2 Kyambogo lecturers and 17 math teachers of 10 secondary schools travelled to Gulu for a one week training. Their aim was to learn more about math teaching of Braille students. The training was given by 4 Ugandan math teachers, Edison Mbamanyiree, Grace Zanvacia, Innocent Ainebyona and Mambo Michael under supervision of Dr. Annemiek van Leendert, researcher and Braille math expert at Royal Dutch Visio. Almost all participants work in a mainstream school with a unit for students with visually impairment (VI) and have both sighted students and VI students in the classroom, occasionally up to 70 students!
The focus of the training was on adaption of the teaching material and didactics. The participants created for example a tactile Cartesian graph board with which Braille students can work well. Another important topic was the mathematics Braille notation. The teachers have to make the transition from English Standard Braille to Unified English Braille, which is not easy and therefore requires special attention. On the last but one day of the course, the participants attended mathematics lessons at Gulu High School.
This was the fourth training for mathematics teachers within the All We See Is Possilbity program in Uganda. The program aims full inclusion and development of the full potential of young people who are blind and partially sighted, from 11-30. In Uganda, many visually impaired students still receive little and/or poor mathematics education. That has to change. These training courses have provided an initial impetus for this.