Links with Tlokweng College of Education, Botswana
Trinity has had close links with Tlokweng College of Education in Botswana since 1994. Every year a group of students and their lecturers from Trinity go on a study tour of Botswana where they meet up with their counterparts in Tlokweng. Similar visits have also been made by Tlokweng students and lecturers to Trinity. The president of Botswana, Festus Mogae has referred to the link between Trinity and Tlokweng as an excellent example of collaboration between an institution from the UK and Botswana.
Background to the Link
The
link originated when a group of lecturers from Trinity made contact
with Tlokweng College of Education through Professor Tony Hopkins who
was then based in Botswana. Visits were then undertaken by Dr Paul
Webber and Dr Guy Evans in May 1994. Both conducted workshops in their
respective subject areas with staff in Tlokweng and other teaching
colleges in Botswana. The visit concluded with a commitment on the part
of staff from both colleges to proceed with the link. In 1996 funding
for visits by staff of both colleges was secured from the British
Council on the basis that Trinity staff engage in a programme of
Environmental Education inset work with Tlokweng College. Subsequently
Dr Paul Webber and Dr Guy Evans presented a two week programme of
workshops in Tlokweng in 1996.
The first student visit was undertaken by twenty Trinity students in April/May 1995 and has continued each year subsequently. The earliest visits had an environmental education focus and involved visits to principal environmental agencies in Botswana (including the Kalahari Conservation Society, Somaraleng Tikologo, Thusano Lefatsheng and IUCN, Botswana) as well providing students with opportunities to see at first hand key issues affecting the environment in the different parts of the country. In recent years the visits have had a broader focus. The current emphasis is on making a comparative study of primary education in Wales and Botswana. The visit now includes school visits, a visit to an orphanage, and a study of a range of issues relating to sustainable development, global citizenship, multiculturalism, ecology and spirituality. It also includes visits to Livingstone, Zambia and Cape Town, South Africa.
Several visits have been undertaken by Tlokweng staff and students to Trinity. Two visits to Carmarthen by Tlokweng staff were undertaken with the assistance of the British Council (in 1995 and 1997). On both occasions the lecturers contributed to various courses in the college. The first of several visits to Carmarthen by Tlokweng students took place in the summer of 1999. These visits have enabled Tlokweng students to make a comparative study of primary education in Wales and Botswana. They have involved visits to schools in Pembrokeshire which have links with primary schools in Botswana and a programme of visits to sites of interest in Wales such as national parks and museums.
