Whereas reading as a culture is picking up among Rwandans, the trend is still lacking with public schools. According to ‘Soma Mwana,’ an initiative that focuses on leveraging the benefits of reading books and extracurricular activities to create a generation of great thinkers and writers, some students from public schools still have a challenge when it comes to reading and lack articulate English speaking skills. Anette Paula Jabiro, the co-founder of the initiative says research they conducted revealed that a number of public schools don’t read other books aside from academic ones, as opposed to private schools. This is what encouraged them to come up with this initiative, Jabiro says. Initiated by eight graduates from African Leadership University (ALU) Kigali Campus, Soma Mwana is designed to create a second language acquisition, specifically English in addition to critical thinking skills, for public primary schools. “Soma Mwana started operating in 2018. When we went to the first public school, we realised that many of the students didn’t know that they even had a library, they would only see their teachers bringing academic books for them,” she adds. When they started this campaign, they also wanted to boost self-awareness and confidence among these students. Through this initiative, students can access various books, reading sessions, and Q&A sessions to help them comprehend what they have read. “We sometimes give them small assignments to write few stories based on what they have read to keep them practicing,” says Clemence Mukabalisa the founder of Soma Mwana. “We also used to have holiday camps where children would do pottery, write and tell stories. Parents were happy about it,” she adds. Cleopatra Happy Muteteri, one of the initiative’s members observes that at times the limited resources restrict the scale of the reading culture in these schools. “In private schools, students are few and their teachers are able to follow them up. But in public schools, sometimes students are so many for the teacher to follow up on them all,” she says. The women however believe that creating this platform and training these students will build their confidence and overcome this challenge.
