COL President and CEO Professor Asha Kanwar delivered the inaugural keynote on Getting Practical About SDG4 in Teacher Education in Africa at the “Distance Education and Teachers’ Training in Africa” conference held at the University of Rwanda. Following the conference, which was held from August 22 to 25, 2017, Professor Kanwar met with the Hon Dr Papias Malimba Musafiri, Minister of Education, Rwanda to brief him about COL’s continued interventions in the country.

COL works with partners in Rwanda to strengthen open, distance and flexible learning while recommending innovative solutions that cater to national priorities. During the meeting, Professor Kanwar briefed the Minister about the open and distance learning (ODL) policy developed with COL support at the University of Rwanda which has been approved by the University board. COL had also developed a draft national ODL policy with the Ministry of Education which is currently pending cabinet approval.

The Minister highlighted Rwanda’s confidence in ODL for increasing access to quality tertiary education in the country. He also expects 60 per cent of all tertiary enrolments to be through the distance mode in the future. Further, the Minister stressed the need to scale up teacher’s professional development in the use of information and communications technology integration.