The year 2020 hasn’t been a bright side in the education sector although on a positive note it has accelerated the use of technology in the Education sector.

Shortly after the pandemic made its way in to the country, the education sector had no choice but to switch to virtual learning and teaching.

Switching to e-learning was expected to make it possible for institutions to continue learning uninterrupted.

We bring you a summary of how the education sector fared this year, when they switched to virtual learning.

Preparedness

When the government halted school activities, the education Ministry had to first focus on sending children back home for their safety.

In April, the ministry then embarked on using e-learning platforms to keep the students on track. This came at a time when the USSD mode and broadcasted learning had also just been introduced.

Asked if the country was ready for this, the State Minister in charge of ICT and TVET Education, Claudette Irere, said that Rwanda has been ready since the early 2000’s when it put in place the National ICT Infrastructure plan (NICI plan).

 "NICI started with building institutions and ICT Capacity for the first five years starting from 2000, the following five years were marked with laying the fiber optic cable throughout the country and establishing some other important infrastructure the country needed. Services leveraging the established infrastructure and the capacity later followed.  The last phase dubbed the "Smart Rwanda Masterplan’’ which was a seal of the NICI Plan that aims at digitalising the core sectors of our economy including education ends this year. In principal, the country was ready but the education sector still had some lengths to go especially in ensuring equal access to the availed learning platforms”, she noted.

Some of the platforms that had been existing before the pandemic’s outbreak include Rwanda Education Board’s e-learning platform (whose bandwidth was increased since people outside Rwanda had started using is), University of Rwanda’s e-learning platform, Rwanda Polytechnic and some private education institutions like Adventist University of Central Africa, University of Kigali, INES Ruhengeri, had also numerous learning platforms, but some of them didn’t have any content before the pandemic.

All parties chipped in

A number of stakeholders chipped in, according to Minister Irere who explains: "Budget wise, everyone chipped in ranging from education partners, telecom companies, Radios and TVs and the finance and planning ministry, among some of the stakeholders”, she recalls.

Apart from officials, more people had to have a role in this. 

Festus Irungu, a lecturer at Mount Kenya University, also asserts that e-learning emphasised the role of parents, teachers and students since everyone was involved in the process of learning.

"It also assisted everyone in the education sector to evaluate the pedagogical approach”, he says

While parents were directly involved in monitoring the learning process, according to Irungu, trainers had to digitize their learning materials as students had to scale up their attention and avoid multiple distractions.

According to qualitative surveys conducted by the Education Ministry, visitors of the platforms increased from the range of 10,000 visitors per day to 168,000 visitors per day between April and October 2020.

It is also established that among all the household samples, 80 per cent of primary students were taking courses at home, 50 per cent of them using radios whereas 40 per cent used books. For secondary school students, it was established that 40 per cent used radios and 30 per cent used the television format.

Students, teachers weigh in

Audrine whose second name was not revealed because she is under 18, is one of the students who were recognized for having made the best out of online learning platforms. She is currently a senior three student at IFAK Don Bosco.

She asserts that virtual learning was an opportunity that anyone who had devices could not miss.

"You could load in an airtime of Rwf100 and work on unlimited tasks, but most of the platforms were zero-rated, so that is how we worked, and as you kept mastering more competencies, it increased the number of stars you had which was a sign of progress”, she recalls.

The 15-year-old is also of the view that using these platforms requires commitment and persistence: "It requires more commitment and determination of course, because you are alone and no one is pushing you, so you will have to create that kind of charisma in you and work instead of being lazy”.

Eric Mugiraneza, a facilitator of one of the e-learning platforms ENEZA Education also hails the platforms for its unlimited resources.

"The good thing about it is that it does not limit you, resources are always available online and you can access them whether you live near or far from school”, he explains.

Francis Mwangi, a lecturer at Mount Kenya University also highlights that some students praised e-Learning because of learning from home.

"They implied that it helped them save on transport costs and time, but others reported better concentration without distraction from their peers”, he recalls.

Challenges along the way

Mugiraneza notes that the challenge with online education is that exams have to be limited because all students are not really good at typing fast, and affirms that achieving better regarding online education will be a gradual process, and not just a period of one year.

For Minister Irere, virtual learning was impactful, but one should not forget that not everyone had the same access and it was not favorable to TVET students whose bigger part of their studies is practical among some of the drawbacks. 

She also recognizes numerous disabled students who were not catered for enough by this mode of learning.

Experience

Irere also says that the move allowed more universities to adopt to the blended learning mode as one of the lessons from Covid-19, adding: "All in all, it was quite a good learning experience. Going forward, the learnt lessons will permit us to plan and do better. We ask schools, parents and students to embrace this new normal because digital is the only way to go”, she concludes.