DL Seminar on IP for Teachers in Zambia
December 12, 2018
A four-day face-to-face international seminar on intellectual property (IP) education for teachers was held in Lusaka, Zambia from November 27 to 30, 2018. The seminar was jointly organized by the WIPO Academy, the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the Patents and Companies Registration Agency of Zambia (PACRA).
The international seminar is part of the initiative of rolling out the IP4Youth&Teachers service in Africa to contribute to knowledge production in the region.
Which topics were covered?
The main objective was to provide educators with the tools they need to bring IP into their school curricula. The seminar consisted of several workshop exercises that produced IP lesson plans, learning outcomes and templates that teachers can use in their classrooms.
Through a series of lectures and follow-up workshop exercises, the seminar covered several topics including:
- Teaching IP at high school levels
- IP education policies
- Teachers’ business case development training for IP education
- The relevance of IP for youth creators, inventors and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students
- The training of teachers as a human resources development strategy in the field of IP
- Practical gamification exercises, and
- Case studies of elder wisdom and traditional knowledge in Africa.
Attending officials from IP offices and ministries of education paired together during the seminar and delivered an action plan for localized teaching on the role of IP in innovation and creativity.
About the participants
57 teachers, educators and policy makers, from 14 developing and least developed countries participated in this edition of the international seminar on IP education.
What our participants are saying
The participants had a very positive reaction to the first edition of the seminar:
I am glad to be part of this IP course. It has been a nice experience, I have learned a lot about the role of IP in education, and I cannot wait to start it in my country. I have learned about the importance of IP to the growing generation.
Janet Langat Chebet, Kenya
Creativity and most of all innovation is what I will carry onto the teachers I work with as a curriculum developer. The information will help us as a subject area to encourage and incorporate creative methods of teaching our learners so that we can build future innovative minds. This is in line with our national education policy “Educating our Future”.
Prisca Silupumbwe Musonda, Zambia
The face-to-face training has greatly illuminated my perception on the need for IP education at all levels of learning. I have concluded that IP education is more than a legal issue, but also a serious curriculum issue. I wish to use my mandate to fast rack IP education in the Ugandan Education System.
Jonathan Mugenyi, Uganda
The program has changed my life and I have a different way of looking at things. Indeed IP should become part of our curriculum at all costs in order to enhance the emphasis on creativity and innovation to our learners. The seminar was excellent.
Sam Sichalwe, Zambia