ADVICE TO EDUCATORS - A Word to the Wise

Lecturers, Trainers, Heads of Departments, Directors of Studies, Academic Deans, and Heads of Institutions - ACTS greets and congratulates you wholeheartedly. You are doing a very important job for the future of the gospel in Africa and even the world. ACTS is in existence primarily for the purpose of assisting you in your noble task of educating and training pastors and missionaries and others who will serve God effectively to the upbuilding and extending of his church. If you are a teacher, or responsible for the teaching programme of your institution, you have a heavy responsibility, as James 3:1 reminds us.

As our name implies, Africa Christian TextbookS (ACTS) puts a priority on supplying textbooks to equip teachers and their students. ACTS therefore wants to help you:

1. To get the right book at the right level

2. To get sufficient quantities for each of your students to have one copy

3. To get the book on time for your course

It is true that a teacher can teach without a textbook, but it is our contention and experience that the teaching and learning process is wonderfully enhanced by the provision of textbooks and other theological tools for our students to use. Please note the following points:

1. Teaching is easier - you can easily assign a chapter from the textbook as homework. Most of our textbooks have study questions to help the student make good use of the textbook.

2. Teaching is broader / wider / richer because you are drawing on the expertise of the author of the textbook. It is unwise for any of us to act as if all wisdom stops with us.

3. Teaching / learning is more effective with a textbook compared to a situation where the teacher may be new, inexperienced, weak, or even careless. At least the students have the textbook to help them get something from the course.

4. Teaching can go forward and the course can be successful even where classes are assigned at the last moment with little time for the teacher to prepare.

5. Life-long learning is facilitated as the student can add the book to his library and has something which is more accessible than handouts and therefore more useful as he goes from the course into a lifetime of ministry. He or she can refer to the textbook again and again.

6. Teaching is more easily transferable. The student can loan the book to others, and can also promote the use of the book himself or herself in future teaching situations.

ACTS strongly recommends you to sit down and choose at least one textbook for every subject in your curriculum. We are ready to advise on the selection of textbooks. This website and our catalogue (available on request) give you some important suggestions. We are ready to work with you in ordering and obtaining these vital tools. However, the more you can advise us in advance, preferably six months in advance, the more likely we are to be able to supply what you need.

There are several options for those who are serious about textbooks:

1. The school buys: your institution itself can buy a set of textbooks which will then be loaned out to the students and recovered at the end of the course - this is ideal since the teachers will always be able to rely on having something available.

2. The student buys: the teacher can recommend a textbook and make sure it is available for students to buy. The student will then own the book and be able to take it away with him after the course. Students may protest because of the cost but in the end they may appreciate this option the best. It also gives the teacher his or her own choice of a current book rather than relying on the choice made by the college some years earlier. Again advanced planning with ACTS is essential to in order have the book available on time.

3. The school buys using student funds: some institutions add a charge for textbooks as part of the school fees. This means they can supply the books to all the students without some students complaining that they have no money. This way also the sponsors of the students are not tempted to view a book grant as an optional extra.

Every theological training programme should try to make sure that textbooks and other supplementary study tools are available to teachers and students. This will enhance your programme immensely. This can be done in cooperation with ACTS either through a local bookshop (who will link with ACTS) or by an agent of ACTS within the school or even by inviting ACTS to open and run a bookshop on your campus. Contact us to find out the conditions for such developments.

We in ACTS recognise that we do not yet have enough textbooks for every subject and every level and every language. There is much yet to be done to produce textbooks which are "evangelical, relevant (contextualised) and affordable." ACTS stands ready to work with serious and capable authors or translators for the production of high quality textbooks which relate directly to the African situation.

Let us put hands together to end the famine of good books, and especially textbooks.

P.S. - IN VIEW OF THE GROWING AIDS CRISIS, ACTS recommends that you add a course to your curriculum (if you have not already done so). The title of the course in some seminaries is -The Church-s Response to the AIDS Epidemic-. ACTS has been able to publish many AIDS awareness materials. In particular we recommend the curriculum guide / textbook, Choosing Hope and books such as AIDS is Real and Helpers for a Healing Community which are intended to equip leaders in Africa for the fight against AIDS.