As part of USAID’s partnership programme with the Government of Rwanda to promote early grade literacy in the country, 148 teachers are set to graduate today with Diploma in Continuous Professional Development (CPD). The trainees will graduate in early grade reading at the University of Rwanda’s College of Education. To give the trainees a unique online experience, the programme piloted formal web-based courses in early grade reading instruction to improve Kinyarwanda-language reading instruction for P1-3 pre and in-service teachers, leading to a Continuous Development Diploma in Foundation Reading in Kinyarwanda. The e-Course was developed locally by FHI360 Rwanda, a nonprofit human development organisation, having the beneficiaries’ interest at heart – Rwanda Mentorship Community of Practice (MCOP) made sure it made the learning platform easy to use by users who are not too familiar with computers. The trainees were drawn from several schools in different districts; the course offered foundational skills of teaching/reading Kinyarwanda. The course is managed through the Rwanda Mentorship Community of Practice (MCOP), a programme funded by USAID and implemented by FHI360. Supervised by Rwanda Education Board (REB), the programme aims to scale, institutionalise and replicate a model for supporting Rwanda’s school- based mentors. As an inaugural course, the training programme is built on the core priorities of Rwanda’s new competency-based curriculum, introduced in 2016 to revamp education system by promoting literacy in the early grades. During the closeout event for the Mentorship Community of Practice Project that saw the handover of the project activities to the Government of Rwanda at Kigali Conventional Centre, yesterday, Isaac Munyakazi, the minister of state for primary and secondary education, lauded the work done by USAID, REB, FHI360 and the University of Rwanda in seeing that the teachers get the required skills of teaching. “It’s a great honour to be here with you as we celebrate the milestone and mark the end of this project. But bear in mind that this is not the end but just the beginning and I thank all the stakeholders who have made this possible,” he said. Yesterday’s event, whose objective was to share project findings, successes, challenges and recommendations, was attended by members from MCOP, representatives from USAID, Rwanda Education Board and all stakeholders, including the 148 trainee teachers that are graduating yesterday. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
