Do you remember having a classmate who was shy and never spoke, or hyperactive and disruptive in class? Was it you?

Every classroom has students who exhibit low self-esteem or challenges with social skills in vastly different ways. Teachers struggle to deal with this effectively.

"It can be so overwhelming. You have diverse learners in one class and you have to control the classroom while engaging each one of them, so they can all advance,” says Appoline Mukakinyana, a pre-primary teacher at Ecole L’Horizon.

This challenge is not new. Education has always been about preparing young minds for the challenges of tomorrow, all while working through the challenges of today. But, as the academic curricula evolve, a critical element takes a backseat: emotional well-being. Including Social Emotional Learning Early on in schools is not just an educational trend; it’s a transformative imperative.

Understanding Social Emotional Learning: Beyond Academics

Challenges with managing emotions and social interactions are an invisible epidemic among learners. They manifest as hesitancy to participate, as fear of failure, or as difficulty in forming genuine, deep connections. These students often withdraw from peers, not because they lack intelligence, but because they lack confidence. Social Emotional Learning can change this.

Social Emotional Learning equips learners of all ages with tools they can use to manage their emotions, build positive relationships, and make increasingly informed, responsible decisions. This framework fosters empathy, self-awareness, and life-long resilience as skills that are just as essential for human development as mathematics or reading. By prioritising emotional literacy in early education, children are equipped not only with the tools necessary for academic success but also for building meaningful relationships and fostering a positive sense of self. Such an approach shapes the learners’ ability to successfully navigate the world.

Why start early?

Early childhood is critical for human development because that is when emotional patterns take root. Introducing Social Emotional Learning at a young age ensures these learned patterns are constructive. It’s much easier to build them into a young learner, than to act later to repair the damage caused by years of low self-esteem.

Social Emotional Learning can also help protect learners, as it acts as a shield against bullying, anxiety, and depression. Studies show that students in programmes that embrace social-emotional learning perform better academically, manifest a stronger ability to focus on tasks, and exhibit lower degrees of stress.

Bringing social-emotional learning into Rwandan classrooms

Developed and launched by USAID Tunoze Gusoma in collaboration with Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), the Social Emotional Learning Framework was established to align with and integrate into the current Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) for the development of a socially and academically competent individual in Rwandan society.

In the words of Dr Nelson Mbarushimana, Director General of REB, the Social Emotional Learning Framework was important for the successful implementation of CBC in pre-primary and lower primary levels, as a guide to the integration and development of skills, values, and mindsets for improving learner wellbeing and academic results across subjects.

"It is in line with a Rwandan education philosophy which aims to ensure that young people at all levels of education are facilitated to achieve their full potential in terms of relevant knowledge, skills, and values to prepare them to succeed academically, for smooth integration into society, and to make full use of employment opportunities.”

The Social Emotional Learning Framework tackles seven domains: thinking, emotion, self-identity, self-direction, communication and understanding, socialisation, and citizenship.

Each domain includes two categories of skills, values, or mindsets, namely cognitive processing, critical analysis, emotional awareness, self-management, self-esteem, self-awareness, self-reliance, purpose, understanding and responding in social situations, empathy, cooperation, relationship building, conflict management, and civic and service mindset.

Children learn these social-emotional skills from interacting with their parents and caregivers, teachers, peers, and communities in all types of situations, including school and home.

Jules Gatete, SEL Specialist at USAID Tunoze Gusoma, remarks that the Framework was developed and approved in 2023, paving the path for the development of Social Emotional Learning resources including the pre-primary activity guide, the lower primary revised Kinyarwanda teacher guides, training manual, the posters and videos used to train teachers on social-emotional learning skills and how to integrate them in literacy lessons and deliver them as part of their teaching models.

Early successes

At least 8,792 teachers and head teachers in pre-primary and primary schools from across the country were trained in Social Emotional Learning approaches and techniques, and are ready to carry forward the teaching, sharing it with others.

"This was a deliberate choice. We selected subject leaders and head teachers and trained them so they can train others,” Gatete said.

The cascading training programme at the school level has now reached around twenty thousand and two hundred thirty-five teachers (20,235) including three thousand six hundred eighty-three teachers of pre-primary (3,683) sixteen thousand five hundred fifty-two teachers (16,552) of lower primary.

Mukakinyana, as one of the trained teachers, says that it has helped teachers to understand the importance of Social Emotional Learning, be more self-aware in terms of owning those skills themselves before transmitting them to the students, and generally become motivated to deliver the lessons with an uplifting spirit.

"We have seen a significant difference in our classroom sessions, it allows students to be engaged throughout a lesson without boredom and be able to retain what they learnt in a more relatable manner with the world around them.”

Gatete highlighted that the Social Emotional Learning activity guide outlines various classroom activities that help teachers create an environment where students can relax, overcome family challenges, and focus on learning literacy and numeracy through play. This approach fosters critical thinking, problem-solving, and empathy as students navigate their social world.

"This is expected to improve reading and comprehension performance, as well as reduce school absence or dropouts,” he noted.

Why focus on Kinyarwanda

This Social Emotional Learning approach was introduced as a continuation of USAID Tunoze Gusoma’s interventions in Rwanda’s education sector to enhance the students’ ability to read and write in Kinyarwanda. Studies show that a good command of a child’s mother tongue is a key pillar of learning strength across other subjects, including learning other languages like English.

For that reason, Social Emotional Learning is integrated into the teaching and learning of the Kinyarwanda language in pre-primary and lower-primary. This enables students to express themselves in their mother tongue as they build emotional intelligence and social connectedness.

Social Emotional Learning integrates into other courses seamlessly, so it does not require additional time on the schedule.

As Venantie Mukantahondi, a Kinyarwanda Curriculum Development Officer at REB, says, the framework of Social Emotional Learning complements REB’s deliberate efforts towards building the social and emotional aspects of education.

The implementation is still in the early stages, but the preliminary evaluation indicates an enthusiastic uptake among teachers. With the integration of Social Emotional Learning, Mukantahondi expects to see improved performance of students and the rise of an empowered future generation in all aspects of life.

"If Social Emotional Learning is left out, their academic competence would be of no good use in our world. These are the skills that should be built from an early stage in partnership with parents as key stakeholders in Rwanda’s education efforts.”

Mukantahondi adds that REB plans to integrate Social Emotional Learning into other courses.

Prioritising Social Emotional Learning is critically important for developing a well-rounded young person, equipped and ready to take on the challenges of their time. Together, parents, teachers, policymakers, and whole communities, with support from USAID, are helping to raise a generation that excels academically and thrives emotionally. We nurture confidence early, firmly believing that every child deserves to shine.