FEATURED: Experts make case for reshaping education to spur 4th industrial revolution

Over 300 researchers, scholars, academicians, educational practitioners, policy makers and postgraduate students have reiterated the need for re-thinking holistic education, strengthening academic staff research skills for sustainable development and 4th industrial revolution.The case was made during the 1st International Conference on re-shaping education for Sustainable Development- organized by the University of Rwanda-College of Education (UR-CE) from March 28 to March 30-that was held at the Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village (KCEV) under the theme “Re-thinking Holistic Education for the 4th Industrial Revolution.”“We are in the midst of the 4th Industrial Revolution that affects businesses and economies in ways we never thought. If we are to confront the challenges ahead of us, it is critical that we re-think the roles of universities as transformative spaces,” said Deputy Vice Chancellor at University of Rwanda, Francoise Kayitare Tengera.In the effort to strengthen teacher education, University of Rwanda's College of Education is implementing “Leaders in Teaching (LIT) Initiative Project” funded by Mastercard Foundation (MCF) in collaboration with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in the Great Lakes with the purpose of building the capacity of academic staff and pre-service teachers.To this end, the project seeks to support academic staff to strengthen their research skills through tailored training, academic exchange and opportunities to undertake research on secondary education themes through competitive research funding.It is also aimed to strengthen the UR-CE’s capacity to provide pre-service teacher training on Rwanda’s competence-based curriculum (CBC) through needs-based training for academic staff and strengthen the integration of ICT in teaching and learning, providing training in the use of SMART classroom technology and supporting the development of digital content for online and blended courses.The project has so far supported some academic staff to carry out research aiming at understanding issues in schools and devise ways for improvement.During the three-day conference, educational scholars and practitioners reflected on how to contribute more to addressing societal problems and challenges to ensure that no one is left behind before the few remaining years to mark the end of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.Olivier Habimana, a lecturer of IT at University of Rwanda’s College of Education says to achieve sustainable development, research is an essential investment.“The research has to help us detect which problems are derailing sustainable development. We need a lot of things for better implementation of competence-based curriculum (CBC). To know what we need, we have to carry out research. At the college of education, our research focuses on secondary and primary schools. The findings can inform policy makers,” he said.He said that there is a project at the college of education dubbed “Active learning using ICT” which is a modern way of boosting research among learners and teachers.Florien Nsanganwimana, the principal of College of Education, said that rethinking holistic education could help create jobs and solutions to problems that are affecting communities.“This could be achieved through research and sharing findings. In the current digital era, ICT is key in rethinking holistic education to produce graduates that are competitive at international level,” he said, adding that students and lecturers have also embraced e-learning.According to Wenceslas Nzabalirwa, Professor of Teacher Education, the inclusion of ICT in education offers opportunities to learners.“The 4th industrial revolution goes together with integration of ICT in teaching and learning at all levels of education to shape future innovations,” he said.Rose Mukankomeje, the Director of Higher Education Council said that private higher learning institutions are also still facing different challenges including limited infrastructure and high cost of private higher learning education that need to be addressed to ensure quality education.“Our students should have tools such as computers, internet, electricity and others,” he said, adding the quality of graduates should be assured.A glance at LIT initiative project achievementsIsabelle Byusa, the education and skills programme Lead at Mastercard Foundation, said that Leaders in Teaching (LIT) Initiative Project at College of Education-which helped to organize the education conference in Kigali-is addressing different issues that were affecting quality education strengthening teachers’ capacity.She said that 161 UR-CE lecturers have been trained to supervise practicum activities while 842 schools attachment mentors that represent 93.5 per cent of the targeted 900 School Attachment Mentors from 917 secondary schools were trained on how to support and mentor students teachers on practicum.Over 6,000 pre-service teachers have so far conducted practicum activities in secondary schools countrywide.To support improvement in teaching and learning using ICT, two multi-functional smart classrooms, a digital media unit and a microteaching laboratory were established.This will add value to pre-service teachers’ preparedness for their teaching profession while over 100 laptops for UR-CE lecturers were purchased.The project also installed ICT teaching tools for computer science education lab, e-resource library for undergraduates, resource room for students with disabilities and lecturer room.At least 10 grants were given to UR-CE academic staff to boost their research interest to build institutional capacity in research output.“The conference from March 28 to March 30 was a great opportunity to disseminate research findings,” Byusa said.

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FEATURED: Experts make case for reshaping education to spur 4th industrial revolution