Kigali- 19th April 2019 – “Take this as an opportunity not only to explore yourselves but also learn from each other for the benefit of Rwandan education. As teachers and mentors, we believe in continuous personal and professional sharpening and development and it is through these training sessions that we empower you to take on this very important role as education mentors’’- IEE Country Director.
Inspire Educate and Empower Rwanda (IEE), a local education NGO in Rwanda is implementing the Teaching Assistantships Project. This project is funded by Mastercard Foundation under its Leaders in Teaching (LIT) initiative in Rwanda. This pilot project is aimed at engaging a total of one hundred and fifty bright girls in their transitional year to tertiary education, as Teaching Assistants, supporting the learning of mathematics and science for six months, at seventy-five schools in fifteen districts in Rwanda.
The project is part of Mastercard Foundation’s commitment to supporting livelihoods and opportunities for young people in Africa, particularly women, to secure dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. Particularly, under the “Recruit” pillar of the LIT initiative, Mastercard Foundation is supporting skill-nurturing, to attract passionate, young women with an interest in education to join the teaching profession. This complements ambitions of the Ministry of Education in Rwanda, to nurture a teaching force, particularly for Science, Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM), during the current Education Sector Strategic Plan period of 2018/19- 2024/25. This Mastercard Foundation-IEE project intends to inspire the Teaching Assistants to take up teaching careers or consider education as area of further academic study.
To guarantee effective implementation of the project, IEE has recruited fifteen Teaching Assistantship Mentors, charged with supporting ongoing mentorship and capacity building for the Teaching Assistants. The mentors are deployed to the schools, each supporting a total of ten Teaching Assistants. IEE hosted a four-day pre-deployment training for the mentors during 16th – 19th April, training them on a range of areas including English language for teaching, planning for teaching and teaching methodology, study strategies and personal development, gender awareness and gender responsive pedagogy, and inclusive education. It is expected that using this content, the mentors will facilitate ongoing school-based mentorship to the Teaching Assistants.
Mugisha Jackline Mutesi, is one of the fifteen Teaching Assistantship Mentors trained. To her, the training made her ready to face and handle the tasks ahead.
“These trainings have been a learning opportunity for me. I have been trained and equipped academically, socially and professionally and I am now prepared to handle the tasks ahead of me especially when it comes to supporting and mentoring the Teaching Assistants and the entire school where I will be deployed”, she said.
According to Musiimenta Cledonia, one of the training facilitators, the Teaching Assistantship Mentors have gained knowledge and skills that have made them ready to cascade the training to the Teaching Assistants, and she is confident that the Teaching Assistants will gain a lot from them.
‘’I am confident that the Teaching Assistantship Mentors are effectively prepared to facilitate ongoing school-based mentorship and continuous professional development for the Teaching Assistants. This will not only support personal development of the girls, but also nurture their interest in the teaching career, which is the aim of the project”, Cledonia noted.
The training used a range of strategies including, exposition, group discussions, presentation sessions, learning energizers and warm ups. By the end of the training, Teaching Assistantship Mentors and the five facilitators elaborated a detailed work plan covering project content around English language for teaching, planning for teaching and teaching methodology, study strategies and personal development, gender awareness and gender responsive pedagogy, and inclusive education.
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