St Michael’s Teachers Hold Annual Conference
By Paul Mwandira
The Office of the Catechetical Methodology Advisor of St Michael’s Parish organized the 2019 Parish Annual General Conference of the Association of Catholic Teachers for teachers working within the parish.
The meeting which was locally organized was patronized by 41 teachers from the four zones of the parish and it took place at St Michael’s Lusubilo Conference Centre on from 26th to 28th April, 2019.
The theme of the conference was “Capacity Building to Teachers; A Goal to a Dedicated Teacher in the Catholic Church”. Facilitators from different fields were engaged to interact with the teachers.
In his opening address the Catechetical Methodology Advisor of the Parish, Mr. Paul Mwandira urged the teachers to use the meeting to explore frontiers for spiritual and professional growth and go home as agents of change.
Facilitators interacted with the teachers on the following topics; Financial Management and Entrepreneurship, Catholic Education Policy, Introduction to the Bible and Missio Ad Gentes as the theme of the Diocese in the year 2019.
The facilitators during the gathering included Mr. Peter Maston Mtambo of Nachembe Consultancy Services with a BSc Degree in Technical Education and over 29 years’ experience in Human Resource Management; Mr. Chauzuka Nyondo, former Education Desk Officer of the Diocese of Karonga with over 20 years’ experience in teaching and the pioneer in developing Catholic Education Policy; Mr. Augustine Mziza who is a retired officer in the Ministry of Agriculture with over 21 years’ experience and headed several pastoral positions, and Madam Elifa Chiona a Catechist at St Michael’s Parish.
During the gathering, teachers also shared ideas on coming up with income generating activities of the Association where among others was to allow any Catholic School to be contributing towards to that.
St Michael’s Parish has got a total of ninety Catholic teachers and only seventy are active members of the group. This year’s conference was highly affected by Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) briefing which was going on in the surrounding Teacher Development Centres (TDC).