Further to our participation at last years Task Force event in Jamaica, Sabre has had an amazing opportunity these past two weeks to join the UNESCO International Task Force on Teachers for Education events in Casablanca and Dubai. These occasions have helped Sabre to be exposed to global fora and to meet new people and organisations in different parts of the world sharing similar aspirations. Similarly, UNESCO and ILO recognise the invaluable contributions that Sabre can make to further the goals of all teachers around the world. 

Our Chief Operating Officer, Jon Beaulieu explains more;

“Our first gathering was the African Conference on the Quality of Early Childhood Education (ECE) and Professionalization of Educators. Sabre had the opportunity to do some story telling on the impacts of our work with regard to socialisation skills and gender aspects of children learning through play. During a panel discussion, we were able to articulate the context of our partnership with the Government of Ghana in defining competent educators and what we do to develop qualified ECE personnel together. 

We were able to learn a lot from an effective yet different model in Morocco being coordinated by the Moroccan Foundation for the Promotion of Pre-school Education. An agreement was forged to further share information and do joint site visits in each country to learn more about each other’s work. Discussions were also held with the UNESCO Regional Centre of Quality and Excellence in Education for Arab states. Through listening to the presentations, we discovered that with the support of Sabre, Ghana is far more advanced in the field of ECE than most African countries.

This past week we were in Dubai for the 12th Policy Dialogue Forum of the International Task Force for Teachers on Education for 2030. The event was hosted by the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, which is responsible for the prestigious UNESCO-Hamdan Prize that Sabre received in 2018 for our innovative work in teacher training. 

Sabre joined the Lego Foundation and VVOB as key case studies on stage presenting our different active play based work in ECE. Key issues of transitioning to primary school by the Lego Foundation and the importance of eliminating gender bias at an early age by VVOB were promoted. It was a great opportunity for our Technical Training Lead, Robert Quansah, to present at his first ever UNESCO conference and liaise with other technical specialists in this field. We also participated in a panel discussion with one of our key partners, the CEO of Dubai Cares, regarding “Pedagogical approaches/teacher training”. Here, our pre-service model was highlighted focusing on the motivation of student teachers receiving mentoring, leading to systemic change in applying agility in their new postings as teachers.   

Ghana’s Executive Director of the National Teaching Council was also present and discussions were held to determine how Sabre can best support them in their mission to provide quality continuing professional development courses and mentoring to ECE teachers, and other teachers in Ghana.  A Government led teacher policy is also underway in Ghana which Sabre is supporting whilst recognising the critical aspect teacher trade unions and teachers need to play in developing policies that impact on them.  

All in all, the events provided Sabre a platform to share and learn, as well as, develop new alliances to create new pathways in the field of teacher training, especially for ECE.  Potential partnerships may evolve from our continuing dialogue with many African and Arabic countries. Onwards and upwards for a better future for children! Please join us in celebrating our work and supporting our efforts to help provide children a better future”