TOTEMK project was launched in August 2020 and will be completed in 2024 which means that it has already reached its halfway. The main idea of the project is to support Kenyan teachers in adapting and implementing Kenya's new competency based curriculum (CBC) that was launched in 2017. With the new curriculum, learners are expected to focus on developing skills and knowledge and applying the acquired competencies in real-life situations.
To support teachers and teacher educators in implementing CBC, TOTEMK has designed four trainings for trainers, of which three have already been organized. The first training of trainers in spring 2021 focused on 21st century skills, the second training in autumn 2021 on the use of modern technologies to enchance learning and the third one this spring on pedagogical leadership. The trainings have been attended by teacher educators around Kenya and each training has had a a different set of participants to reach as wide an audience as possible. Participants from the trainings are meant to organize workshops or other such events at their own educational institutions to spread their new knowledge from the trainings even further. The fourth and the final training of trainers will be held in Nairobi in November and it will focus on the sociocultural issues to empower teachers in their work.
In addition to the training of trainers, members of the TOTEMK team have started to work on MOOCs. The idea of the MOOCs is to combine the main points of the four training sessions into courses that enable the rest of the teacher educators and teachers around Kenya to access the contents of the previous trainings. This will ensure the continuity of the project achviements also in the future.
TOTEMK is a project funded from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs' budget for development cooperation and it is administered by the Finnish National Agency for Education. Altogether nine projects were funded for the current funding period and the projects are planned to be finished by the end of 2024.