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Mozambican Teachers Reuse Garbage to Create Educational Tools
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptUSAGM
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Mozambique Teachers Recycling – Baptista
HEADLINE: Mozambican Teachers Reuse Garbage to Create Educational Tools
TEASER: Teachers create their own teaching material with cardboard and plastic gallons in Manica, Mozambique
BYLINE: Andre Baptista
DATE: 05/25/2023 at 10:10am
DATELINE: BANDULA, MOZAMBIQUE
SCRIPT EDITORS: KEnochs; DLJ
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA Original
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO __
TRT: 3:03
VID APPROVED BY: KE
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES: For questions and final review, send it back to Africa Division’s senior editor, Salem Solomon, email: salemsolomon@voanews.com, Africa Division’s executive producer, Betty Ayoub, email: bayoub@voanews.com.))
((INTRO)) Teachers from 115 schools in the Mozambican province of Manica are creating their own teaching material using cardboard, plastic gallon jugs, and bags made from raffia leaves, offered by the community. They say they’re saving money by replacing expensive conventional teaching material while helping the environment, in this story narrated by Barbara Santos.]]
((NARRATION))
In the interior of Mozambique, more often than not, the school year starts with a shortage of books.
Resourceful teachers from some schools in Manica started transforming garbage into teaching tools. First grade children learn while they play.
[[Radio track: … explains Constantino Bakachesa, who teaches at the school.]]
((Constantino Bakachesa, Teacher)) ((Male, in Portuguese))
“People buy cooking oil containers. Then we pick it up, wash it and transform it into teaching material.”
((NARRATION))
The schools in Manica are recycling plastic containers and cardboard and turning them into cutout items allowing children to learn numbers, letters, and syllables.
[[Radio track: Bakachesa says he uses a sharp knife to carve out the letters and numbers. He said it allows children learn by playing and has had a major impact on the development of young minds.]]
Constantino Bakachesa teaches in Manica and he uses a sharp knife to carve out the letters and numbers. He says children learn while playing and it has had a major impact on the development of young minds.
((Constantino Bakachesa, Teacher)) ((Male, in Portuguese))
“When children in a classroom don’t have their own material, they’re not motivated, but when they see this material it’s marvelous. It really helps them learn how to read, to write, even with math. For example, they learn the numbers and how to count. Some first graders don’t know how to read the numbers, but when they see how they look, they learn how to write them down.”
((NARRATION))
Sitting on the floor on tiny benches made from eucalyptus and pine tree trunks, the children are given what teachers call a “soup of numbers and letters,” which they use to count and build simple words.
Teacher Marieta Neva notes that recycling the material has changed the view of teaching in Bandula, a village that lacks almost many basic tools.
((Marieta Neva, Teacher)) ((Female, in Portuguese))
“We have used only theory; it wasn’t enough for the kids’ needs. Now, using this material we can show the kids tangible things. For example, when we talk about the letter ‘A’ we have that mix of letters and we ask the student to identify which one is letter ‘A’, and the student is able to identify.”
((NARRATION))
Ana Dulce Guizado, director of Save the Children International in Manica, one of the major partners in the education sector, pointed out that recycling has allowed the reallocation of financial resources that were once spent in the purchase of conventional teaching material.
((Ana Dulce Guizado, Manica Save The Children Director)) ((Female, in Portuguese))
“We had to buy teaching material from different bookstores. So, we thought about sustainability and the environment, and we saw that it was possible to use the containers to produce teaching material. So, I can say that this was one of our greatest achievements because we produce this teaching material that children have used since 2019, 2020 and are still using today.”
((NARRATION))
Teachers say playful, interactive teaching and the teaching materials help spark creativity, and a love of learning.
((For Andre Baptista in Bandula, Mozambique, Barbara Santos, VOA News.))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
