And that may be a good governance issue at the national level - Galen University is doing its own education program for the municipal level.
Last year Galen was selected to receive half a million dollars in grant funding from the US through the CARSI Program to implement a project on Strengthening Good Governance and Transparency at the Municipal level. The mission is to raise awareness and educate teachers, students and municipal officials on the importance of having transparency and good governance within civil society structures.
Today they held a workshop as part of the teacher component. Jomarie Lanza was there.
How can we ensure that students and educators are more aware of good governance policies and Transparency at the Municipal level? With the help of a 2 year project with funding from the US government through the CARSI-ESF Program, Galen has launched a project that will educate participants on strengthening the governance infrastructure through three different components. It's aimed at youths, teachers and municipal officials, and today these teachers met to partake in the teaching component that will also serve as a way for them to attain Continuous Professional Development hours as well.
Zain Dueheney, Project Director Galen
"We have enrolled in the program over 58 teachers but due to other commitments and workshops some couldn't be here but we have around 30-35 off the top of my head currently here today and we still have some we are expecting due to transportation issues. So we expect to have around 50 for the workshop today."
"The course is a 14 week program so we are on week 3 of the program but the other classes are being conducted virtually online. This is the only worksop in person because we felt that there are certain skills that are better taught in person and we are trying to equip the teachers and the educators with these skill sets that when they go back in the classroom in September and in August that they will have new skills to teach on years of governance, transparency, anti corruption. So we are giving them these skill sets that they will put into practice while they are actually in the program school will start and we will continue getting feedback from them to make the outcome and impact of this activity very significant and impactful for the school."
So why target good governance? Dueheney says that there are not many programs in the educational sector that focus on capacity building within this sector and they have designed a project that will serve its purpose in the longer run.
Zain Dueheney, Project Director Galen
"Governance is always an area that is lacking in the educational discussion and we are trying now to try to move the conversation into the school curriculum we expect that through activities like the good governance and transparency program we are able to have or create better or more aware, citizens are more aware and are interested in bing apart of the development of our country, participating in the electoral process and other processes but we also expect them to be global change makers while they are here. This is just a step towards the direction that we want them to go in terms of ethical leadership. Eventually if they end up political office that they are able to make decisions from a formal standpoint of having been trained in air of governance."
