The COVID-19 pandemic and consequent school closures have disrupted education in Rwanda for approximately 2.5 million primary school learners and 600,000 secondary school learners. To mitigate the impact of this disruption, Rwanda Education Board (REB) has doubled the capacity of its existing e-learning platform and launched a radio learning programme and YouTube channel.
While a successful endeavour for many, most learners, teachers and school leaders lack the required infrastructure to access those resources and are left behind. Moreover, the majority of teachers and school leaders are not equipped to deliver distance or online education.
As schools reopened in September 2020, additional challenges arose: would learners find their way back to school? How would they catch up on lost time learning? And how to safeguard learners', teachers’, and school leaders’ physical and socioemotional wellbeing?
Sector and district education officers, school leaders and teachers in secondary education have the competences and skills to prevent and/or manage future (health) crises that disrupt education.
This project centered on building the resilience of key education actors at central, district, sector and school level to manage the COVID-19 crisis as well as any future crises.
Under the ongoing Leading, Teaching and Learning Together project (LTLT), VVOB provides continuous professional development (CPD) services to key education actors through blended learning. This project allows for these trajectories to be delivered in full digital mode and includes thematic support on school hygiene and distance learning, among others.
The project was built around four pillars:
- Providing laptops and internet connectivity to secure an enabling online CPD environment for all key actors.
- Developing a digital data-ecosystem for planning and M&E to ensure a quick response system to emerging needs.
- Integrating thematic support on resilient schools in current CPD materials.
- Building the capacity of officials on effective school leadership (district-based officers) and mentoring and coaching (sector-based officers), and ensuring teachers and school leaders have the required ICT skills to participate in online learning.
Achievements of the BR-LTLT initiative in Rwanda:
- Sector and district education officers, (deputy) head teachers and teachers in all 30 districts of Rwanda have access to a laptop and internet.
- Sector and district education officers in the 16 districts not yet covered by LTLT have strengthened skills in coaching, mentoring and professional learning communities to support school leaders.
- (Deputy) head teachers and teachers
- of the 16 districts not yet covered by LTLT have completed a CPD course on digital literacy,
- of the 14 LTLT districts have participated in professional learning communities to discuss dealing with COVID-19 and distance education.
To reach its goals, VVOB in Rwanda develops the capacity of its education partners. VVOB uses capacity development trajectories that give partners maximal responsibility in the execution and management of their own change processes. This is done through technical assistance provided by the VVOB team in Rwanda, which includes both local and international educational and change management experts.
