GASABO-Yesterday, the ministry of education (MINEDUC) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to launch Rwanda Education Commons (REC).

According to Daphrose Gahakwa, the Minister of Education, REC is a four year project funded by USAID and implemented by Global Learning Portal (GLP) to help expand access to quality education through the effective use of information technology to achieve this goal.

”This project was initiated by USAID as a result of last year’s visit to Washington DC by the President, where he highlighted the use of ICT in education as a means of enhancing development. On top of that, an international conference of institutions of higher learning in Africa and Americans universities held in Kigali was facilitated by USAID,” Gahakwa stressed out at her office at Kacyiru.  

USAID has donated $ 4.8million to MINEDUC for support the project; the money will be used by REC to develop the capacity, content by the use of multimedia and platform to establish a network for education stakeholders that will provide opportunities for collaboration, learning and sharing knowledge.

Teachers, administrators, government ministries, educational institutes, teachers unions, parents, the private sector and other education partners are members and beneficiaries of REC.

”USAID decided to make Rwanda a pilot to this project according to her effort of using ICT in education as cross cutting to the development. We are happy to partner with the Ministry of Education and we have opened an office here to make sure that the project is successful,” said Steven Ehrenberg, the program officer, Global learning portal. 

Through an interactive, easy-to-use web portal, individuals and groups will work together to share knowledge and education materials.

The Rwanda education commons will complement and connect existing projects and provide lessons learned for the expansion of the commons program elsewhere in the region through the Africa education commons.

The project will cover the whole country and it is believed that it will boost education through ICT. This is the first project funded by USAID in the education sector.

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