BLF DIGEST

Improving learning outcomes in English and Mathematics in primary education in Rwanda

BLF DIGESTAPRIL 2021 | Issue #8

Buildingschool-community partnerships

BLF Digest, April 2021 2

CONTENTS

BLF, Aigle Blanc Building, Kimihurura, KG 566 Street, P. O, Box 4251 Kigali, RwandaPhone: +250788318509 | Email: [email protected] | Website: www.buildinglearningfoundations.rw

p3 ForewordBy Salome Ong’ele

p4 Programme updateSchool community partnerships drive improved learning outcomes

p5 Programme updateRemediation is key to students’ success in learning

p6 FeatureSNECOs instilling positive behavior management in schools

In this issue:

FREE The BLF Digest Magazine is free of charge and will be distributed on a quarterly basis. You can download the e-magazine as a pdf file at:

www.BuildingLearningFoundations.rw

Our team:

FAITH MBABAZI

Communications Manager

GEORGINE MUKARUGIRALeadership for

Learning Advisor

ALEX MAHE MUKIZWA

Systems Strengthening

Advisor

HAZEL COX

Inclusive Education

Advisor

SOFIA COZZOLINO

Education Technical Lead

SILAS BAHIGANSENGA

ProgrammeDirector

Senior education officials appreciate BLF’s support to the sector

p10 Programme update

p7 Q&ADismas’ story: Creating the school vision and mission together ensures ownership

p8 Q&AKimonyo’s story: How GS Gahima is building relationships with the community

p9 ProfileBLF’s English for Teaching course brings online language learning to rural Rwanda

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.buildinglearningfoundations.rw


BLF Digest, April 20213

FOREWORD

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the 8th issue of the BLF Digest, our quarterly magazine that gives you an insight into the work we are doing in all public and government aided primary schools to improve learning outcomes in English and mathematics in Rwanda.

The Rwanda Education Policy highlights the importance of strengthening both the education system and management. Specifically, the policy recommends that the participation of parents in education management shall be encouraged in order to achieve transparency, accountability, predictability and participation in an atmosphere of transformational school leadership.

In response to this, the BLF leadership for learning model requires Sector Education Inspectors (SEIs) to strengthen the capacity of

School General Assembly Executive Committees (SGAECs) to support and hold head teachers to account to achieve improved learning outcomes. This requires upskilling SEIs and Education Inspectors to fulfil their roles of supporting and monitoring SGACs’ activities.

BLF has developed a training programme to strengthen all 416 SEIs and National Inspectors capacity to provide support and guidance to SGAC members, enabling them to play their roles effectively. BLF leadership for learning Advisors provide training to SEIs who in turn hold three meetings with members of the SGAC in each school over a period of three terms.

BLF’s aim is to ensure that by the end of the programme, the SGACs understand their roles and responsibilities as elected members to hold effective meetings that hold headteachers accountable for better

school performance and support the school improvement planning process.

This issue has a special focus on how BLF is empowering SEIs to strengthen capacity of SGACs. You will read some interesting testimonies and impact stories of how improved learning is being achieved as a result of effective collaboration between school leaders and parents at school level.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue.

Best wishes,

Salome Ong’ele

The participation of parents in education management shall be encouraged to achieve learning outcomes in an atmosphere of transformational school leadership

SALOME ON’GELE | BLF Team Leader


PROGRAMME UPDATE

Iyandamuriye Aphrodis is Sector Education Inspector (SEI) for Muzo sector, Gakenke District in the Northern province. His

role is to oversee 11 schools in that sector. Gakenke District has a mountainous terrain and therefore conducting school visits is very challenging to him and his colleagues. He has been involved with BLF since 2018 and has started seeing the impact of the learning journey he started with BLF.

All SEIs in the country have been orientated by BLF to be able to support the School General Assembly Executive Committee members to implement their roles and responsibilities well. The topics covered by Aphrodis included how parents can participate in developing their School Improvement Plan, how they should hold the school leader to account and how to chair the quarterly meetings.

It was in this regard that SEI Aphrodis was trained by BLF. Aprodis has since trained each school general assembly executive committee twice in all the 11 schools he oversees in his sector. He has seen how they have started taking over their responsibilities of holding the head teachers to account.

“I am so impressed with the way the SGAEC committees are doing their job without any fear of the head teacher and how they visit the schools regularly these days. The confidence they have has increased since they completed the first two training sessions. Many thanks to the BLF team for helping me do my work more easily” Aphrodis says.

In Muzo Sector, parents have started supporting school leaders to engage community members and ask them to bring children with disability to school. Some families in his sector had chosen not to bring learners with disability to school because they thought there was no need. However, as the training went on, the

School community partnerships drive improved learning outcomes

has not been brought to school. This is all because of the module I taught them on inclusive education”, Aphrodis narrates.

During the school visits, Aphrodis notes that the inclusive education focal teacher has taken up the role of supporting colleagues at school level to be aware and conscious about learners who need extra support in the classroom. During classroom observation that was jointly conducted by a BLF staff member and the SEI, we also noticed that teachers were praising students and engaging them in a very interesting way detailed out in the BLF toolkits.

“It is very good to see how the head teachers meet in the PLCs that are organised by BLF to discuss matters affecting their schools in general. They openly discuss how to involve parents in the management of schools’ challenges”, Aphrodis adds.

Aphrodis is happy that parents and the schools’ management now get along very well and that the head teacher is always conscious of the need to first engage the SGAEC members before making decisions that affect the wellbeing of the students.

Aphrodis (right) training SGAC Members of Ecole Primaire Kiliba

© BLF

“I am so impressed with the way the SGAEC committees are doing their job without any fear of the head teacher and how they visit the schools regularly these days. The confidence they have has increased since they completed the first two training sessions”– APHRODIS

BY FAITH MBABAZI | BLF Communications Manager

committee members agreed to put more emphasis on community mobilisation with regards to inclusive education.

“It is heart warming to hear parents saying that they plan to visit a certain village where they know a child who is disabled and


PROGRAMME UPDATE

The COVID 19 pandemic created a learning crisis in Rwanda with the closure of schools during the

first term of 2020-2021 school year. This created a need for the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) to adopt Remedial and Catch up programmes in order to appropriately support learners at risk of repetition or drop out to attain the required learning level.

To respond to this need, Building Learning Foundations (BLF) in collaboration with Rwanda Education Board developed English and Mathematics guides for teachers to support learners based on their grade levels and learning difficulties in achieving the required competencies in those subjects.

The guide to remedial and catch up programme is a comprehensive resource detailing how teachers select learners in need to remedial learning and how they will support them based on their needs.

Over 30,000 teachers of English and Mathematics at lower and upper primary have been orientated on the use of the remedial and catch up guide. BLF staff visit schools every month to mentor and coach teachers.

Teacher Olive from GS Gahanga A said that the remedial guide book for lower primary mathematics teachers offers good practices to teachers on how to provide extra attention to those learners who are lagging behind and to make it easier to teach them at the levels that are appropriate to their current abilities.

The programme is being held in all schools on a weekly basis. Teacher Olive at GS Gahanga A says that in her school, they have dedicated the first period of either subject to remedial activities and in addition during weekends, remedial classes are dedicated to the children who have been identified as struggling.

The orientation on remedial activities is delivered by a BLF Sector Learning Facilitor. One of the key activities in these session is an introduction to CA-MIS, a comprehensive assessment management information system which allows teachers to record data and keep track of students performance and be able to assess which student needs extra support.

The MINEDUC supported remedial programmes are designed to close the gap between what a student knows and what they are expected to know. They target reading or Mathematics skills like counting. For most schools in Rwanda where the programme has began, students are given an extra class during the week and taught in a special setting to help them catch up.

Remediation is a key to students’ success in learning BY FAITH MBABAZI | BLF Communications Manager

© BLF

© B

LF

Teachers engaged in a remedial and catch up programme orientation offered by BLF at GS Gahanga

BLF Staff Silas Biseruka introduces teachers on the use of CA-MIS


FEATURE

A s part of BLF’s Disability Intervention Scale up, Special Needs Education Coordinators (SNECOs) worked

with head teachers and Sector Education Inspectors to select Inclusive Education Focal Teachers in each Disability Intervention school. In November 2020, the SNECOs delivered orientations in every district to all Focal Teachers and Head Teachers. This orientation focused on the role of the focal teacher, collaboration between the focal teacher and head teacher and upcoming activities in schools where the focal teacher could provide targeted support. These activities included the Back-to-School campaign and Remedial Programme.

Following this orientation, SNECOs undertook school visits to provide mentoring support to focal teachers, including focusing on the development of positive behaviour management techniques. SNECOs have reported that there has been good progress made on the reduction of corporal punishment and promotion of positive discipline.

The head teachers’ Companion developed by BLF that guides school leaders notes that ‘A positive behavior management approach means that adults have an important role to play in guiding learners and in teaching them right from wrong. It involves positive reinforcement to encourage a child’s good behavior as well as ensuring that there are consequences for bad behavior. Positive behavior management rejects the use of violence, fear or shame to punish bad behavior’

SNECO, Fabien NIRINGIYIMANA, in Rubavu district, reported that he visited all the schools he supports in his district, following the Focal Teacher/headteacher orientations, and undertook one to one mentoring sessions with focal teachers to share positive behavior management strategies and guide them in developing a friendly classroom environment.

Some of the different strategies Fabien discussed with focal teachers included, ‘praising children, using names, encouraging children during teaching and learning activities, using body language during teaching just to help children with learning difficulties. Fabien also recounted how he discussed the importance of creating a friendly and inclusive classroom environment by ‘mixing children on desks like to seat boy and girl, using enough light in the classroom, (being aware of the) teacher’s position when she or he is teaching, using big letters on chalkboard to help children with visual impairment. Fabien reminded focal teachers to use these strategies with COVID guidelines in mind and ensure social distancing between children.

In Gakenke district, SNECO Jean Paul IYAMUREMYE describes how he has had the engagement and support of headteachers in developing a positive classroom environment. During a sector Professional Learning Community discussion on English as a Medium of Instruction support, Jean Paul shared strategies with head teachers about ways to engage all learners, especially where they may find their learning difficult because of the switch to the use of English.

Motivated and inspired by this discussion, the head teacher then planned to work with the focal teacher to model good examples of this in class. A lesson observation was

carried out by the focal teacher using some of these strategies. The head teacher made a video of this to provide a positive example of this to teachers in the school to encourage them to use these strategies too.

“Umucunguzi Landrine used praise and encouragement in classroom activities, smileys and flowers, hands clapping and thumbs up for the best performers and thanks for trying to the ones who got the wrong answers. I noticed how she gave time to all learners to think about the activity and how she calls students by their names”, says SNECO Jean Paul after a lesson observation.

Jean Paul also highlighted that the use of positive behavior management strategies was important as it was a move away from corporal punishment, which was a safeguarding issue. He observed a positive impact of the teacher’s use of praise and commented that during the lesson, “learners were interested, active in their learning, engaged, and there were good relationships between the teacher and learners and between children.”

“Focal teachers, like one from G.S Butete in Cyanika Sector, have time to talk with teachers on this point of behaviour management strategies. Some children were not heard and valued because of their behaviour difficulties but now they are safe and being supported”, says Elie Gasuhuke, SNECO Burera district on how the work he has done with focal teachers as part for the mentoring and training is now being shared with other teachers in schools.

Focal Teachers understand that positive behavior management is part of child friendly teaching which encourages positive behavior in classrooms, reducing corporal punishment. They are developing their own inclusive practice, and knowledge, working with the support of head teachers, and are becoming more able to support other teachers and be a good example to them.

SNECOs instilling positive behaviour management in schoolsBY HAZEL COX | Inclusive Education Advisor

“Learners were interested, active, engaged, and there were good relationships between the teacher and learners” – JEAN PAUL


Q&A

Dismas’ storyCreating the school vision and mission together ensures ownershipBY GEORGINE MUKARUGIRA | BLF Leadership for learning Advisor

I nvolving parents in the development and implementation of the School Improvement Plans helps to achieve

improved student outcomes. Here is an inpsiring story of Dismas Nshumuyiki who chairs the SGAEC of Rubengera Primary School.

Tell us about yourself

My name is Dismas Nshumuyiki, Chairperson of the SGAEC at Rubengera primary school in Karongi District, Western Rwanda. I have been leading the school committee since 2019 and started getting involved with BLF immediately. My role is to drive the school towards achieving improved learning outcomes by working closely with the school leader to support teachers and learners.

How has BLF supported you and your colleagues?

Through SGAEC trainings facilitated by our Sector Education Inspector, BLF equipped us with strong understanding about our roles and responsibilities. I am aware of the aspects of school management and how to engage parents in the learning of their children. Our committee also supported the MINEDUC led Back-to-school campaign, by going village to village reaching out to the families whose children had not yet reported to school. I am one of the participants in the back to school committee at the Cell level. 75% of children who had dropped out of school returned while 25% who didn’t return were transferred to the other schools due to shifting of their families.

The major issue that we faced was that most children did not return to school because of poverty and could not afford scholastic

materials. I was able to convince our SGAEC members to engage parents to fundraise for money to help the neediest. We were able to fundraise for 300,000Rwf at the village level and this was used to purchase materials for the learners from poor families.

What are you doing better after being trained by BLF?

Our committee now takes part in creating the school vision and mission together with the head teacher. This is because we clearly understand our role and responsibilities. Clarifying staff members’ roles and responsibilities has helped us to move forward fast. We also collaborate in the development and implementation of the School Improvement Plan which helps to achieve the school’s objectives.

Nowadays we encourage the head teacher to always appreciate and reward good performing teachers and give up on the blame game that was a common practice in our school. All this was a result of our training with SEI who was also trained and supported by BLF.

Dismas Nshumuyiki, Chairperson of the SGAEC at Rubengera primary school in Karongi District

Q:

Q:

Q:

© BLF

“We were able to fundraise 300,000Rwf at the village level and this was used to purchase materials for the learners from poor families”– DISMAS


Q&A

Kimonyo’s storyHow GS Gahima is building relationships with the communityBY ALEX MAHE MUKIZWA | Systems Strengthing Adivisor

Building Learning Foundations reached out to Kimonyo Faustin Chairperson of the School General

Assembly Executive committee of GS Gahima to discuss about how his school collaborates with the community with an aim of improving learning outcomes for students at primary level. Faustin explains how BLF has helped him and his colleagues to perform their roles better.

Tell us about yourself

My name is Kimonyo Faustin, I am the Chairperson of the SGAEC of GS Gahima located in Mugesera Sector, Ngoma District in the Eastern Province. Like other SGAEC chairpersons, I am also a member of the District CPD Committee at Ngoma District. Our school has both primary and secondary sections. I love education and I also like leading people. My children attend this school and I was born and raised in this area. I feel that giving a substantial amount of my time to the development of our school is one way of building my country.

I believe that we parents have a primary influence on children’s attitude towards school, their learning, and their future success.

How did you get involved with BLF?

I started getting involved with BLF since 2020. By then, we were receiving training on our roles and responsibilities and we were given handbooks that are very easy to understand. Many of us did not know how to support the headteacher to lead his school well. But after several orientations, we were acquainted with our roles. I work together with parents and the head teacher

our roles and responsibilities and how to collaborate with the head teacher to ensure that children at lower primary level are benefiting from the learning materials offered by BLF to improve the learning and teaching of Mathematics and English at primary level. As a result, our school established a room of learning materials for lower primary learners to manipulate at certain times of the day on a rotational basis.

Our committee agreed to make surprise visits to our school and hold classroom observation to get to know the challenges encountered by teachers and learners. Once we identify a problem, we discuss it in our next SGAEC meeting. My self-confidence has increased as chair after knowing my roles and responsibilities thanks to BLF team who supported me.

Also we were taught by BLF to always look out for children with disability in our areas and encourage parents to bring them to school as learning is for all. By so doing, we have had an increased number of children with mild disability starting at P1 level. I also learnt how to follow up on teacher training activities at the school level.

How do you intend to use the knowledge acquired from

BLF in future?

I will continue encouraging community members to get involved in the learning journey of their children. My hope is that BLF can continue reaching the rest of the committee members and give them the same skills thereby getting them involved in the education of their children. I appreciate the work being done by BLF that always ensures that all stake holders involved in the learning journey of children are trained and supported.

Kimonyo Faustin, Chairperson of the SGAEC of GS GahimaQ:

Q:

Q:

Q:

© BLF

“I believe that we parents have a primary influence on children’s attitude towards school, their learning, and their future success”– KIMONYO

in my area to devise mechanisms on how to improve learning outcomes for learners.

What have you benefited from BLF and how are you using those skills?

I was privileged to have taken part in the capacity building sessions delivered by BLF’s System Strengthening Advisors. During orientations we were given guidance on


PROFILE

A s part of the UKAID funded Building Learning Foundations (BLF) programme in Rwanda,

1,598 lower-primary teachers of English have completed a 6 months online English for Teaching (EfT) course. This first phase of the course roll-out combined online self-study with live English lessons via video conferencing and was the first of its kind in Rwanda. BLF provided tablets with 4G internet connection, and a team of 26 international e-moderators hosted the live sessions and supported teachers

to complete the self-study part of the course. 88% of the teachers who took part in the course successfully passed and were awarded end-of-course certificates.

As part of BLF’s sustainability strategy, 50 Rwandan school-based mentors also supported the teachers as locally-based online learning tutors. The tutors have now completed a course in e-moderation and teaching live online through Consultants-E,

BLF’s English for Teaching course brings online language learning to rural Rwanda

in preparation to lead on course delivery to thousands more lower-primary teachers in phases 2 and 3.

Xaverina Niyoyita is a year 2 teacher of English in Mugambazi primary school, located in the remote Rulindo District of northern Rwanda. She says that her confidence in English speaking has greatly increased because of the opportunity she got to practice her skills at the live sessions and in frequent discussions with her e-moderator.

“I have never had an interesting training course like this one offered by BLF since I joined the teaching profession 24 years ago. I could not imagine myself being able to hold a 10 minutes conversation in English with such confidence, but now you can hear how we can converse in English”

Xaverina said that her experience has inspired her to start an English club in her school and continue engaging her colleagues to use more English around school. She was nervous at the start of the course as she had no experience in using this kind of technology, but by the end of the course she and her colleagues were more tech savy: “I didn’t know how to use email and to engage with others on the online forum, but thanks to our moderators now I am very good at using technology” Xaverina added.

BLF hopes to continue offering this course to teachers in all of Rwanda’s thirty districts over the next year, in order to meet its language proficiency goals of increasing the percentage of teachers across Rwanda with a minimum of B1 level English.

English language training for teachers is one strand of BLF’s support for improving learning outcomes in primary English and Mathematics. We also continue supporting teachers nationwide through school-based communities of practice, provision of self-study CPD toolkits, and provision of high-quality pupil activity books.

Xaverina Niyoyita with her English for Teaching certificate

BY FAITH MBABAZI | BLF Communications Manager

“I have never had an interesting training course like this one offered by BLF since I joined the teaching profession 24 years ago” – XAVERINA


PROGRAMME UPDATE

MEETING WITH: The State Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Twagirayezu Gaspard met and held discussion with the BLF Team Leader Salome Ong’ele.

The engagement aimed at presenting the use of CA-MIS, an information-based platform to monitor the education system’s comprehensive assessment. CA-MIS was developed by BLF’s System Strengthening experts.

The Minister of State appreciated the work done by BLF and requested to make CA-MIS a reality in schools such that teachers master its use. CA-MIS was rolled out by Rwanda Education Board at the start of the school year 2020-2021 with an aim of collecting accurate data of students who needed extra support following nearly a year of studying remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The system supports several other remediation programme activities.

MEETING WITH: the newly appointed Director General of Rwanda Basic Education Board Dr Mbarushimana Nelson met and held discussions with the BLF Senior Management team.

. DG REB was briefed about the programme implementation updates and upcoming plans. He appreciated the work the UKAid funded programme is doing in all primary

Senior education officials appreciate BLF’s support to the sector

Stephen Harvey. He also highlighted the UK’s ongoing commitment towards the overall Learning for All programme which supports Rwanda’s education sector.

MEETING WITH: BLF Senior management team met and held discussions with Dr Bahati Bernard the newly appointed Director General of National Examinations and School Inspection Authority NESA, a body that was established recently by the government of Rwanda.

Discussions centered around BLF’s intervention with Education Inspectors at central level and Inspectors at the decentralized level – Sector Education Inspectors. Both BLF and NESA officials noted that there are opportunities for collaboration in relation to creating a capacity development framework for inspectors.

The national examination and inspection programs for primary, secondary Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) will be conducted by NESA. NESA takes examination responsibility from the Rwanda Basic Education Board and the school’s inspection exercise that has been previously conducted by the Ministry of Education.

schools to improve learning outcomes in English and Mathematics.

Among other programmes of interest to DG Mbarushimana is BLF’s cross cutting theme of inclusive education which is embedded in all the three BLF Foundations. Dr Mbarushimana informed BLF that a team was recently established and tasked to focus on promoting inclusive education in Rwandan schools and asked for close collaboration with BLF team in this regard.

During this meeting, the British High Commission Kigali was also present and was represented by the Education Advisor Dr

State Minister Twagirayezu (left) and BLF Team Leader Salome Ong’ele

DG REB Dr Mbarushimana Nelson (right) with the BLF senior management team in Kigali

© BLF

© B

LF

BUILDING LEARNING FOUNDATIONSAigle Blanc Building | Kimihurura, KG 566 Street

P. O Box 4251 Kigali, Rwanda | Phone: +250788318509Email: [email protected]

Website: www.buildinglearningfoundations.rw

The Building Learning Foundations Programme is implemented by a consortium of three of the United Kingdom’s premier not-for-profit leaders in improving education globally: Education Development Trust (co-ordinating), British Council and VSO


Documents

BLF DIGEST