The UK Department for International Development (DFID) and child rights organisation Plan International-Rwanda have distributed iPods to teachers in Eastern Province’s Bugesera district to facilitate learning.

Eighty teachers of Science and English from 16 primary schools in Bugesera this week received the donation to help them teach.

It is part of the Teacher Self-learning Academy project, an initiative of Plan International-Rwanda, in partnership with the Ministry of Education’s Innovation in Education Centre and under funding from DFID.

Officials say the intervention is centered on teacher self-study materials since the teachers will be able to use iPods to access the dictionary, English grammar notes and teaching videos recorded from other teachers in best performing schools.

"It is time to bring new things that make an impact. The project will help both students and teachers to improve the quality of education,” said Plan International – Rwanda’s Peter Van Dommelen.

Antony Karamaga, a teacher from Nyamata High School, said the new devices would help improve the quality of education at his school.

"These are very useful materials that we need. I am sure that the number of students who will pass the national exams will go up,” he said.

The vice-mayor in charge of social affairs in Bugesera district, Priscille Uwiragiye, said the devices are going to be one of the methods used to achieve the district’s educational goals. There are 85 primary schools in Bugesera district, but only 16 have so far benefited from the programme.

Issa Claver, an official from the Ministry of Education’s Centre for Innovation in Education, said the distribution of iPods in Bugesera is a pilot project that could be scaled up in many other parts of the country if it proves useful.

The pilot project is also being tried in Southern Province’s Nyaruguru district, with teachers receiving ipods worth $400 (around Rwf 271,787) each.