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Education East Africa Quarterly Report

UPDATE FROM KIGALI

1^st February 2017

The school holidays were long. The schools closed at the end of October and opened on Monday 23^rd January. That first week of the new term was taken up with enrolling the new Primary 1 pupils and preparing the school. The new Primary 1 pupils are enrolling in their hundreds. We visited each school just to say ‘hello’ and to plan our teacher-training visits. As we approached each school masses of pupils ran up to see ‘the white one’ in great excitement. They do not see white people very often at all, and so to have one who comes and helps in some of their classes is of enormous interest!

So, our work in the schools only started again two days ago, on the 30^th January. As this is the new school year, we can have a greater affect as we are starting at the beginning and can plan for the whole year. We want to improve classroom discipline; too many pupils put up their hands and shout out to be chosen, and this should now be done silently. The care and use of the pupils’ exercise books needs keen supervision, and also the teachers’ use of the blackboard needs to be improved. We aim, too, to help with the neat and orderly storage of materials. All of this will not be easy with over 50 children in a class, and staffrooms which do not have enough tables let alone cupboard or shelf space.

Our first day back in Gasabo primary school was more than a promising start. Claude has started well, and his new pupils are diligently putting up their hands and waiting patiently to be chosen to answer. They are learning the sentence pattern ‘This is a….’, and we observed Claude demonstrate and model this target language clearly, many times. The pupils then tried to say the sentence ‘This is a book’ after Claude had put books on each desk so each pupil had a book to touch. The result was excellent, and after a while all pupils were confidently answering ‘What is this?’, with ‘This is a book’. We had a long session with Claude and the head teacher and they are now happy for our scheme of work to be used this year. This is wonderful, as by following our materials from beginning to end the pupils will learn the sentence patterns, and with the teachers using the teaching methods set out in the books the pupils will be able to demonstrate their understanding and will learn with fun.

Damian, who used to work with the Rwanda Education Board, joined us in the middle of November. He was meeting many people whilst I was in the UK. On my return to Kigali, we have met many more people together. We are meeting as many key, influential people as possible, so that our cause to try to bring about improvements to the English curriculum and the teaching of English in the lower primary classes has much support. There is a resistance to change, and especially as the new curriculum was only introduced last year.

In the coming weeks we need to work closely with the teachers and to continue to gather evidence that our teaching materials are beneficial and are enabling the teachers to improve their own English while improving the pupils’ learning of English at the same time.

We have a busy time ahead, but I am excited that I am back working with the teachers again, and that they are so keen to improve and to help their pupils.

Your donations keep this valuable work going, and I thank you all for your generosity and support.

Many thanks indeed.

Katy Allen
Director
Katy@EducationEastAfrica.org

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

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