19th of January marked the official commencement of a three-month hybrid professional development program at Rongo University in Kenya. The training is built upon digital curricula developed by the faculty of the ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education. The project is implemented through funding from the ELTE University Excellence Fund, and participants will receive a formal certificate upon successful completion.
The primary objective of the program is to deepen knowledge and practices regarding inclusive education within the local school system. This training is a vital milestone in a systematic, four-year school development initiative conducted by the Faculty’s experts in the region, in collaboration with the ADRA Hungary Foundation and the UBIN-ADAM Africa Foundation. The current course provides for 15 teachers from five local primary schools and a high-school teacher affiliated with UUBIN-ADAM Afrika Foundation the opportunity for professional growth, empowering them to support the integration of children with special educational needs more effectively.
From the Rongo University side, the opening ceremony was attended by Dr. Samuel Gudu, Vice-Chancellor; Dr. Elizabeth Khalili, Dean and Professional Program Leader; Dr. Millan Okello, Head of Department; as well as heads of various administrative departments and the faculty members teaching in the training program.
The official opening ceremony also featured online contributions from Budapest by Dr. habil Andrea Perlusz, Vice-Dean of the Faculty and professional leader of the program; Attila Erdős, Head of the International Office; and Zoltán Sitkei, representative of the ADRA Hungary Foundation. In their welcoming addresses, they praised the importance of previous mutual professional visits and consultations in achieving these results. They emphasized the indispensability of local knowledge transfer and sharing, as well as the further opportunities for cooperation inherent in this partnership.
The uniqueness of the three-month program lies in its hybrid methodology: participants process the materials—presented through in-person and online lectures by Rongo University faculty—at their own pace using digital curricula, while Bárczi experts provide continuous process-following support.
This initiative does not only assist the future work of the 15 participating teachers but also indirectly makes education more accessible and of higher quality for thousands of Kenyan students, further strengthening the Faculty’s international commitment to promoting social inclusion.
We would like to express our gratitude for the support of the University Excellence Fund, which contributes to the implementation of ELTE’s Africa Strategy.
