Education innovation project gets more funding

A project that will see innovators in education sector get financial support has received an additional 3.3 million pounds from the UK government, a development that will see more beneficiaries.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A project that will see innovators in education sector get financial support has received an additional 3.3 million pounds from the UK government, a development that will see more beneficiaries.The head of the project, Marc Van der Stouwe, told The New Times yesterday that previously, it was not clear how many beneficiaries would be funded based on available funds. He said that, last year, the project had a budget of 8 million pounds (approx Rwf7.8bn), adding that with the new funding, they would be able to increase the number of beneficiary projects to 26 across the country."We have already signed contracts with 24 projects and very soon, we shall sign a contract with the remaining two oncethey fulfil the requirements,” said Stouwe.He pointed out that most of the projects that have been selected are operating outside of Kigali.These projects are initiatives by the private sector and local NGOs that have been identified as being capable of benefiting the education system through overcoming, through innovation, challenges that may hinder the promotion and quality of education. The projects were jointly vetted by the Ministry of Education and the UK Government based on an evaluation exercise.At first, 150 projects had expressed interest but only 39 managed to present their full proposals from which the 26 were selected as suiting for this funding.Based on the size of the innovative project, the funding project will give financial support ranging from 50,000 pounds (Rwf49.3 million) to 800,000 pounds (Rwf789.6 million). The three-year project will further assess to ensure effectiveness of these new innovations.