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Relevant background information
The Child-to-Child ‘Little Teacher’ Programme was one of the earliest of Child-to-Child programmes but is less typical than most and does not use the six-step approach. It focuses more narrowly on the help which children in the middle classes of primary school can give to other children in their families and communities who are about to enter school. It therefore acts as an interesting alternative to conventional pre-school groups with the added gains it offers to the ‘little teachers’ in developing their capacity to teach and share.
Botswana was also the site for an international Health into Language seminar August 1990, a book to parallel, Health into Mathematics and Health into Science was planned but never published due to the untimely death of its author, Dr. Ken Cripwell. The useful seminar report is available in the Child-to-Child resource centre.
Note 1
Helping children get ready for school
The ‘Little Teacher’ programme continues according to a report from the CHILD-to-child Network Botswana (Feb, 2005). Since its inception, the programme has spread to 53 schools and has reached an estimated 58,000 pre-school and primary children around most of the country. The programme is currently focusing on pre-school education in four rural districts (North-West District, Kweneng District, Central District, and Southern District) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. HIV/AIDS is another area that CHILD-to-child Network Botswana is working on so that children are empowered to make healthy life choices while at the same time educating and impacting their communities.
The programme has been effectively described in the following publications:
Pridmore P. and Stephens D. Children as Partners for Health London: Zed Books, 2000 pp. 125-137
Child-to-Child, Early Years Children Promote Health, London, Child-to-Child with Bernard Van Leer Foundation, 2004 pp 1-9
Date: 2005
Source: Dr. Hugh Hawes, Education Adviser, Child-to-Child Trust, London
Note 2
Very wide use of Child-to-Child readers
Botswana leads Africa in its use of the Child-to-Child readers jointly for promoting reading skills and developing health knowledge and approaches. They are recommended and regularly used in government schools. Over 50,000 copies comprising 15 titles were ordered in the three years between 2002 and 2004.
Date: 2004
Source: Longman Botswana
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