Israel Khoza

Israel Khoza is 32 years old and is a ProFuturo coach in Eswatini, specifically for 8 schools in Siteki, a small semi-urban town in the Lubombo region.

Israel earned his degree in Animal Science from the University of Eswatini; however, he always had a fascination with the world of technology. After working temporarily as a math and science teacher at a high school in Siteki, he decided in 2019 to focus on what he was truly passionate about. That is how he started taking online programming courses, which he still attends to this day.

In early 2021, Israel had the opportunity to take his passion for technology to another level. Through ProFuturo, he became an educational coach in the Siteki region. He now shares his knowledge and experience in technology with the other teachers and students at the schools.

Israel is also particularly interested in traveling and learning new languages. Because of Eswatini’s proximity to Mozambique, where Portuguese is the predominant language, he decided back in 2018 to learn the language through a mobile app. In addition, after joining the ProFuturo team, he added Spanish to his collection of languages. Israel is clear about it: learning languages is an opportunity to broaden his horizons.

When Israel started working as a coach for another 40 ProFuturo teachers, he thought it would be much easier to teach adults than to teach math to children, as he had done before. However, he came to understand that teaching technology is still a complicated task, especially for people who have little exposure to and experience with ICT. Israel learned to adapt to the situation and works every day to become a better educational coach.

Some of the other difficulties Israel faced in his role as coach were brought about by the arrival of Covid-19. Pandemic restrictions and the limited availability of teachers, most of whom lived in other towns, put Israel to the test. “One day I tried to organize an online training session via Google Meet with three of my schools at the same time. I felt like I was isolating myself because of the pandemic. Only two schools were available for the session. The other one had connectivity problems. I did it because you never know when schools might close, and you have to make the most of the opportunities that come up.”

Although Israel knows he is not a “technology god” and that he still has many challenges ahead of him, he tries to inspire others and pass on everything he knows to other teachers and fellow team members. “I dream of a world where everyone uses technology with ease. Now I can see that world becoming a reality, because with ProFuturo I can help teachers and students in disadvantaged environments become part of the world I dream of,” Israel concludes.