The Teacher Training Curriculum in GSS is relevant to acquisition of the defined competencies by the learner and more specifically, to classroom teaching and learning

• Characteristics of children and their holistic development;
• The pedagogy of teaching and learning: development of the whole child;
• Classroom environment;
• Learning Materials in particular Reading materials
• Teaching and learning inside the classroom in particular, use of teaching aids and other resources in activity based teaching and learning, the time management, lesson planning based on continuous assessment of the individual learner, and finally, acquisition of the core competencies on the part of the learner.
• Acquisition of the key competencies : Language development, (Reading, Writing), Math and Science;
• Assessment;
• Academic Supervision;
• Monitoring individual learner performance;
• Community participation; and
• The Teacher.

It is important that the trainees are able to see for themselves what the curriculum means in the context of a classroom.

The daily 12 hour course, therefore, includes two and a half hours of teaching practice in one of the GSS Training Schools located in the catchment area of one of the four Regional Training Centres (RTCs), two and a half hours of discussion on the topic of the curriculum and three hour's of role playing. During the role playing time the participants are divided into 1/2 big groups or 5/6 small groups. Each group of participants nominate one of them as the 'teacher' and the rest pretend to be students. The mock teaching practice as well as other exercises undertaken at the RTC are supervised and facilitated by the Trainers. As many as six trainers could be working simultaneously with different groups of at the RTC. The trainees are also trained in material development and classroom display.

The curriculum indicated under section 4 above, is worked through in the context of what the trainees had seen inside the classrooms in the demonstration schools. Thus, the training is carried out in workshop environment giving each participant the opportunity to work individually as well as in small and large groups interacting and sharing perceptions with other participants as well as the instructors. This would also give the trainees the opportunity to understand the pedagogy contextually.

The trainees also learn to develop classroom resources, learner generated reading materials, time management, assessment and lesson planning in the context of mock classes.

The central focus of the training is to enable each trainee teacher to create the learning environment inside a mock classroom, put the activities and transactions involved in classroom teaching learning in place, and ensure ability to facilitate acquisition of the core competencies on the part of each learner inside the classroom.

Thus, the training, spread over fifteen days would enable each trainee teacher to learn the skills and acquire the knowledge hands-on. This in turn, would help them transform the learning environment of their assigned classrooms when they returned to their respective school.

1. The 15-day Basic Training
2. Teacher Support and Capacity Building for Six months
3. Continued Teacher Capacity Building