Effective January 2016, pre-primary, primary and secondary school learners will be introduced to a new curricula complete with new text books and teaching methods. This is part of the resolutions announced at the end of a two-day consultative conference where the Rwanda Education Board (Reb) brought on board stakeholders in the education sector to discuss ways to make a new competency-based curricula. Speaking at the end of the conference, John Rutayisire, the director-general of Reb, said the new curricula will be tailored and aligned to the country’s development blueprint under the Second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS 2) in terms of youth empowerment, labour market demands and emphasis on provision of skills. “We compared Rwanda’s curriculum to other countries’ that are building toward competence-based curricula. We resolved to introduce new text books when we introduce the curricula to make it easy for learners,” Rutayisire said. “We will also revise teaching methods to a more interactive kind to ensure sharing of knowledge.” He said the new curricula will aim at providing education for all and will factor various abilities of students, including the special needs students. “We are anaylsing competencies in terms of what needs to be taught and when. We will also map competencies against learning areas to have an inclusive education curriculum,” Rutayisire added. Mathias Harebamungu, the minister of state for primary and secondary education, said the changing socio-economic times require revision of the curricula. “EDPRS 2 requires a greater focus and urgent response from education stakeholders. The curricula needs to satisfy national aspirations. It needs to support economic development by providing learners with the right skills and attitudes,” he said The Minister for Education, Dr Vincent Biruta, said they want to come up with a curriculum which will look out for all students and not only the academically able. “There is a need to balance attaining academic goals with obtaining skills required for the world of work,” Dr Biruta said. Participants, who included teachers, education inspectors and education specialists, are considering the implications of the curriculum revision and how stakeholders will be affected by the change.
