Feed A Hungry Mind

Education East Africa Quarterly Report

UPDATE FROM KIGALI
July 2018 

The second term does not end until the 3^rd August which makes it a very long and tiring term for both pupils and teachers. The end of term examinations will be in the last week, and some revision will take place before then, and so the teaching weeks are coming to an end.

We have two new teachers at Kibara primary school for teaching English to Primary 1 and Primary 2. This was difficult at first as the teachers had to assess their pupils’ knowledge and ability and that took time. However, the teachers adapted very quickly to using the NOEC books, and now their lessons are some of the best.

Our New Original English Course (NOEC) books are the reason for the success of our work. The teachers appreciate having just one textbook. With the instructions and explanations in Kinyarwanda the teachers know what to do and how to do it, and, with the English which is to be taught being clearly set out, they are not making mistakes. The pupils are benefiting enormously from correct English being taught, and with the good teaching methods the pupils are literally seeing the meaning of the sentence patterns, and are then using them correctly.

The teachers become ever more enthusiastic about the books as their pupils progress, and the Primary 2 teachers are so amazed by what their pupils can now understand and say in English that they cannot wait to see how they are in Primary 3 and Primary 4!

Some English reading books were donated to us by a primary school in England, and the pupils have relished reading these. The language in the books is repetitive and so the pupils can manage to read and understand. These books have given more motivation and satisfaction. However, with over fifty pupils in a class, the teacher can only give the books to a few at a time, and then finding time to hear them read or check their understanding is difficult.

Our work is becoming more widely known and regarded. In the middle of June, I managed, at last, to see the new Minister for Education. He gave me a full hour of his time, and it was a most lively and open discussion. The Honourable Minister would like our work to expand and he is now working to help make that possible. The new school year starts in January, and he is aware of the financial implications of scaling-up our programme. This could be a most exciting development, possibly taking our NOEC books to two new districts with over 100 primary schools.

I look forward very much to seeing how the plans develop, and I am already writing a full proposal with costings. Alongside that I am writing about the role of Kinyarwanda in the pupils’ primary schooling. At the moment the pupils start to learn English in Primary 1, and their English studies have the same number of periods as their Kinyarwanda studies. I am of the opinion that the pupils need their literacy skills and initial thinking skills developed in their mother tongue without interference from a foreign language. Others are also of this opinion, but it will be an uphill struggle to change the status quo. However, it seems a battle well worth fighting, as the pupils’ writing and reading in Kinyarwanda is not of a high standard, and that in itself affects their ability to develop those skills in English.

I remain busy, and also optimistic that our work will develop to make widespread change to Rwanda’s primary school pupils.

I thank everyone who has supported our work, and who is interested in what we do. Your donations are what enable us to carry on, and your generosity is wonderful. Thank you so much for your help.

Happy summer days.

Katy Allen-Mtui - Director   
July 2018

Education is the Passport to a Self-Sustaining Life
www.EducationEastAfrica.org

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