Implementation schedule

The first two-day workshop with two teachers from each of the participating schools in Senegal was convened 17/18 February 2012 at the CEM in Hann-Pêcheurs.

Gora Kane guided the workshop as resource person from the local partner organisation, UNI.V.ERE, together with Aliou Sall, the local Mundus maris coordinator. The aim was to present and critically discuss the pedagogical support kit, setting up a schedule for testing the pilot teaching modules and agreeing on a monitoring and evaluation scheme.

The workshop started with introductory explanations about ecosystem concepts followed by a session on teaching approaches and available tools as provided by the project kit.

Much of the actual initial assessment work on the teaching aids was carried out in working group sessions. The picture gallery below captures some of the intense moments of critical analysis.

The strike movement in many Senegalese schools during this school year and the social movement in the run-up of the presidential elections (second turn on 25 March 2012) have slowed down the actual test work following the initial workshop. Instead of finalising these initial tests end March 2012, they are now rescheduled to be completed end April 2012.

A workshop with FAO staff will take stock of experiences so far based on the original needs assessment, the proposed communication strategy and the report about the teacher workshop in Senegal. It should set the stage for the second two-day workshop with the teachers in the four participating schools in Gambia, which should take place in the second half of April 2012. This way, earlier experiences will already be incorporated into the English version of the teaching kit and the workshop itself.

• Between April and May 2012 all test activities should be carried out in the participating schools and carefully monitored. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) sheets will be used to collect experience from using the teaching aids in real life situations. M&E are particularly important to learn lessons for future use and possible updates of teaching aids and eventual their roll out.

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  Between early and late May 2012 a workshop will be convened in each country to review the experience and analyse lessons together for the future. Participants will be the same as in the first workshop.

• The collective experience will be written up by Mundus maris in June 2012 and validated by participants in view of reporting back results and an outlook to FAO's EAF Nansen Project.

Mundus maris will also encourage use of free web resources, which can be accessed via internet. Among these is the global web archive on all fishes - FishBase. A fish quizz and other apps will shortly be available via mobile phones, which are more widely distributed than internet-connected computers.

Mr Mane Jacques Diouf, a project agent in the FAO Office in Senegal is following the exercise to ensure good local connection between the FAO and the pilot activities. The photo shows Mr. Diouf in his office with some of the teaching aidswith local coordinator Aliou Sall looking on.