Lithuanian university sends 8,000 textbooks to universities in Africa

Kaunas University of Technology has sent 8,000 textbooks to universities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia to help train future mathematics and English teachers and support educators’ professional development.

The university’s publishing house prepared 15 publications: five mathematics textbooks in English, five textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language and five mathematics textbooks in French.

Donata Lisaitė, an associate professor at Kaunas University of Technology and the project coordinator, said the materials aim to help future teachers adopt active, student-centred teaching methods that encourage independent learning, while promoting gender-sensitive and inclusive education.

Introducing new teaching methods alone is not enough, she said. The project is also developing training modules to help educators test and adapt the approaches and develop new practices in collaboration with colleagues.

The books were produced as part of the international higher education project ProTEEM, involving universities in Belgium, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia.

Kaunas University of Technology was responsible for publishing educational materials prepared by project partners for use in African universities to train educators and strengthen their professional skills. Some publications are also intended for schools.

Jurgita Barcevičienė, head of the university’s publishing house, said the production process required careful consideration of the books’ weight, durability, format, paper, binding and transportation costs.

“Logistics to Africa are complex and expensive, so every extra gram matters,” Barcevičienė said. The books had to be lightweight yet sturdy, easy to use for studying and writing, and suitable for copying when necessary, she added.

The covers also needed to withstand regular use without adding unnecessary weight, while the format had to balance convenience for readers with efficient transportation.

Lisaitė emphasised that the project was not intended simply to transfer a European education model to African countries. Instead, it seeks to develop solutions suited to local conditions in cooperation with local partners.

The ultimate goal is to give students more opportunities to participate actively in learning, study independently and apply their knowledge in practice, she said.

Access to a school, a teacher and a textbook does not, by itself, guarantee equal learning opportunities, Lisaitė added.