Kigali, February 25, 2021
“A holistic learning experience for a learner requires more than only class knowledge and academic knowledge. The teacher should vary activities in a range of learning contexts to give learners with different abilities and interests opportunities to each, engage in learning to the best of their abilities”. This was a remark is made by Jean Paul Muhire during a teacher training at a training center in Gasabo district.
In a move to support quality learning, the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) in Rwanda has recently recruited new teachers across all levels; pre-primary, primary and secondary. The teachers will support expanded access to education in the context of the competence-based curriculum.
Particularly at a time when educators have not been actively facilitating teaching and learning due to covi-19 related Government lockdown measures to curb the spread, teachers across the board deserve some refresher trainings such as Muhire, a Continuous Professional Development Advisor (CPDA) is facilitating.
This training is contextualized in the Ministry of Education’s in-service teacher development efforts which are institutionalized in the national School-based Mentorship Programme implemented by the Rwanda Education Board (REB). Muhire is deployed by Inspire, Educate and Empower Rwanda (IEE) an Implementing Partner in Education in collaboration with UNICEF Rwanda, with funding support from the LEGO Foundation. These partnerships are all aimed at complementing efforts of MINEDUC and REB in teacher development where particularly, the LEGO, UNICEF collaboration is aimed at supporting Learning through Play (LtP), an initiative for equipping teachers with skills to incorporate play as a holistic pedagogical approach, to learning.
At this training, Muhire is engaging 28 teachers in playful activities, with a focus on activities to develop learners’ cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills which relate to intellectual skills and cognitive strategy, appropriate emotions and responses, and physical actions and reflexes respectively. It is this whole person development that Muhire is calling ‘holistic’, as he models this to the teachers to equip them with knowledge, attitudes, and skills to apply LtP pedagogy in primary schools, in support of delivery of the competence-based curriculum.
Embedded in this training also are some of the cross-cutting areas of the competence-based curriculum among which are environment and sustainability, peace and values education, gender, and inclusion.
‘’Many times, teachers focus on the cognitive domain when preparing lessons and ignore other domains and cross-cutting issues such as gender, environmental sustainability, peace and values etc and this is like half-preparing learners who will graduate into a dynamic, multidimensional world. As educators trusted by the Government, parents and families to educate their children, we must do a better job of preparing the young ones for an unprecedented future”- Muhire emphasized.
Emmanuel Ndacyayisenga, a new Mathematics teacher at Ecole Primaire Nyange is one of the enthusiastic teachers at this training.
‘’As a new teacher, this training has opened my eyes to what is required of us as teachers. I have personally been guided on the basics to keep in mind as I plan my lessons, and as I teach. I will ensure to integrate cross-cutting issues into my lessons and include play in my teaching, to make it fun, but also to ensure my learners are each having their learning needs met’’- Ndacyayisenga commits.
In appreciation of this training, Edouard Nizeyimana, a Head Teacher of Groupe Scolaire Nduba reflects that “this training is of great importance to the teachers as it helps enlighten them on what is required of them as they practice their profession. Particularly since all the teachers are new, there can’t be a better start”.
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