Feed A Hungry Mind

It is with great sadness that we learned of the sudden death of one of our trustees of Support to Primary Education Rwanda, Martin Masabo, on 27^th September.  

Martin had been in hospital for a few days suffering from Covid, and sadly died on the morning of Monday 27^th. 

Martin had been a refugee from Rwanda in the late 1950s and had lived in Uganda, but ended up in Tanzania where he gained great respect as a teacher at a seminary school.

He returned to Rwanda in the mid 1990s, and worked in government with a promising career. He was the government’s choice person to head the new Lycee de Kigali secondary school. It was not Martin’s first choice but he agreed to take up the appointment, and was there for twenty years until his death. He led the school to be one of the best government schools in Rwanda.

Martin was energetic in the education community in Rwanda and was instrumental in forming the country’s Head Teachers Association. 

Emmy Nyirigira invited Martin to join the board of trustees of Support to Primary Education Rwanda when it was formed in 2016, and Martin accepted without hesitation. Martin’s participation in trustees’ meeting was invaluable with his knowledge of the education system, his contact with many officials, and his wise guidance and advice. We will miss him greatly. He leaves two children who are still of school age. Martin was talking about his forthcoming retirement and his plans, but, tragically, aged 59 he succumbed to Covid.

With Covid restrictions on the number of people allowed in church services and funerals only one member of SPER represented us at Martin’s service but flowers were sent, and we put a notice on the charity’s websites.

The last lockdown in Rwanda ended in Kigali and a few districts in mid-August. The schools were reopened for Primary 1 to Primary 3, and then their academic year ended on 17^thSeptember. Primary 4 to Primary 6 began their academic year in October and their first term will end in December. Our lesson observations and support to the teachers have continued around these dates and restrictions.

So, along with the school closures because of Covid, these changes to term dates have not been helpful for the pupils’ learning. However, the teachers and pupils are proving to be very resilient.

From the youngest to some of the oldest primary pupils the NOEC books are a source of enjoyable English learning; for instance, teacher Josephine, returned from maternity leave, at Kibara primary school is performing most impressively with classes of up to 70 young children and managing to engage them all, and Teacher Claude continues at Gasabo primary school with his Primary 5 class of 11 to 12 year-olds, and they are showing real proficiency in using English for all their studies. Real learning is taking place. The teachers enjoy the NOEC books not only because most of the work is done for them by all the detail in the Teacher’s books which they easily follow, but also because they gain enjoyment and pride from their pupils’ evident learning and success.

With only about fifteen percent of staff in public offices and no visitors allowed in, it is to Damian’s credit that he managed to meet the Head of Curriculum at the Rwanda Education Board, Joan Murungi. She told Damian that she has a lot of information about our programme and has heard how successful it is. She thinks it could be of benefit in teacher-training too. Damian invited Joan to come to see the NOEC being used in the classrooms. Joan said that if the Ministry approved the NOEC for use in all schools then she would be happy with that. We are now trying to get to see the Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education, Gaspard Twagirayezu, again, and also to see the Director General of the Rwanda Education Board. These meetings are taking a frustratingly long time to arrange but we are pushing hard before the year ends.

It does seem that 2021 in Rwandan primary schools has been a bit of a mess with so many stops and starts and changes. Throughout all of this the teachers of English using our NOEC books have been grateful for the books’ inbuilt revision, inbuilt ‘action chains’ for pupils to engage and use the language, and the enjoyable and yet testing exercises. All of this has enabled the pupils to retain the English learned and to progress steadily.

These continue to be challenging times, and I remain ever grateful to all of you who donate so that our work can carry on. Learning English is a necessity for our Rwandan pupils if they are to understand their studies and get anywhere in life. Your support of their foundation in gaining a good grasp of the English sentence patterns and structures will go a long way in their journey out of poverty. I cannot thank you enough for your help.

Very best wishes

Katy