The programme which aims at improving English language literacy and numeracy among students of primary one, two and three grades (P1, 2 and 3) is jointly being implemented by Education Development Trust, British Council and VSO, the three organisations which designed the programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Rwanda Education Board (REB).
Funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the programme is built on three foundations that are teacher development, school leadership for learning and system strengthening in all state-funded primary schools.
Jo Owen, International Chair of Education Development Trust (EDT) said the programme running until 2021 is focused on learning outcomes, not about just doing training or the number of people who have been trained but it is about student’s achievement.
Mr. Owen was addressing media after a field tour of two schools in Muhanga District and holding talks with district and sectors’ education officers on Friday.
“I have seen a lot education programmes around the world but I am very impressed by the Rwandese Government’s vision, energy and ambition for education. We are absolutely privileged to be helping to enable that vision to come through,” he said.
He added that education officials and headteachers are challenged by a huge amount of responsibilities but EDT is going to find what can help them deliver BLF programme in addition to other responsibilities.
“The purpose of this trip was to understand more about the programme, the situations on the ground and find how this programme can succeed. What I have seen on the ground is, a lot of teachers, headteachers and officials are both talented and very motivated, and those are the two main ingredients for success,” he observed.
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Timothy Bainbridge, EDT Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, said the programme is different from previous programmes which used to take teachers for training and send them back to work.
“This is not about taking teachers out of the classroom to train them and go back to classroom. We have seen in many countries that it is not working well. With this BLF, we want to train teachers and work with them in the school environment. We are bringing innovative approaches to make sure the literacy and numeracy improve,” said Mr. Bainbridge who was also on tour alongside Mr. Owen in Muhanga District.
The two flanked by district and sectors’ education officers visited Kivomo Primary School where they followed a P3 teacher delivering a Mathematics lesson and GS Gitarama where a P2 teacher was delivering an English language lesson.
”Teachers have a challenge of English language. In collaboration with REB, we have developed toolkits of English and Mathematics for teachers. We are distributing them to the districts, they will train teachers and give them the materials. The teachers will improve their English. They will have teaching aids that meet well the Competence-Based Curriculum. BLF is a technical support component. One of the components of this programme is that some lessons have been recorded on audio and video tapes,” he added.
The lessons will be put on SD cards and teachers will be given smartphones to use for hearing and watching the lessons and then teach following the model in pre-recorded lessons.
Fausta Mukanyandwi, Headteacher of GS Gitarama, appealed for teachers’ intensive training in English language, saying that most of the teachers have limited skills in English because they did their education in French system but they are looking up to BLF programme to help them improve their skills.
Emilien Ntagwabira, Muhanga District Education Officer in charge of primary education, urged teachers and schools’ leaders to embrace modern teaching ways that are in BLF programme to improve the quality of education.
“We expect from BLF the improvement of teachers’ skills in modern teaching ways by engaging students in lessons. REB has been training some teachers who train others but now with BLF, all teachers for P1, 2 and 3 will receive training. We are all committed, including local governments, to making this project a success to improve quality of education. We ask parents to care for their children’s education, give them school materials, send them to school on time and facilitate them in the entire education process,” he said.
On the course of three years, BLF programme will reach out to 2.6 million children; 12,500 English and Mathematics teachers of P1, 2 and 3; 2,500 headteachers; 2,500 chairpersons of School General Assembly Committees; 832 mentor trainers; 416 Sector Education Officers; 30 school inspectors; 30 District Education Officers and 30 District Directors of Education.
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