The Ministry of Education and the Rwanda Education Board (REB) held a stakeholder forum from July 16 to 17, 2019 in Kigali, bringing together a total of 49 delegates from the education sector to contribute to the design of “Teacher Futures”, a school-based teacher development programme supported by COL.

The Head of the Teacher Development and Management & Career Guidance and Counselling Department at REB, Mr James Ngoga who presided over the opening session, said that the country had made tremendous progress in education over the last few years, the most recent of which was the move from skills to competency-based curricula in the basic education cycle and pre-service teacher education.

“With the right curricula, having quality teachers to deliver it is on our agenda more than ever before. We are therefore excited that COL is coming in at this critical time to complement our efforts in teacher development,” said Mr Ngoga.

Education Officer at UNICEF, Mr Yonah Nyundo observed that COL’s intervention was timely. “It is good news that COL is coming in to support teacher development. This is a vantage entry point to support learning in Rwandan schools under the competency-based curriculum and is likely to complement UNICEF’s work in in-service teacher development through the national school-based mentorship programme.”

Participants were drawn from various education sub-sectors and included officials from the Ministry of Education and REB, representatives of major development agencies in teacher development including UNICEF, Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance, Building Learning Foundations and the Wellspring Foundation for Education. Also participating were sector education inspectors, lecturers from the University of Rwanda College of Education, selected school head teachers, school directors of studies and teachers.

Dr Betty Ogange, COL’s Adviser: Teacher Education said, “It is COL’s desire to contribute to education delivery in Rwanda by supporting teacher development. We value teachers as important agents of learning and we would like to complement the Government of Rwanda’s efforts, through REB, to support a school-based teacher development programme enabled by technology.”

The forum was facilitated by Inspire, Educate and Empower, a local education NGO using participatory approach, whereby group discussions and presentations generated ideas to be incorporated in the project strategy for Rwanda.