Mastercard Foundation, the Belgian government, and VVOB have jointly supported online learning in Rwanda with the provision of 3,000 laptops to 30 districts.
The delivery of the laptops is part of Mastercard Foundation’s Leaders in Teaching Initiative, which aims to help establish an enabling environment for online continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers and school leaders.
Also, as part of its ongoing Leading, Teaching and Learning Together (LTLT) programme, VVOB, in partnership with the Rwanda Basic Education Board and the University of Rwanda College of Education URCE, has been providing CPD services to concerned stakeholders.
Furthermore, with support from the Belgian government, the CPD training programmes have been running in primary schools in four districts in the Eastern Province and two districts in the Western Province since 2017.
‘The provision of these laptops to primary and secondary education schools will support teachers and school leaders to actively participate in important CPD programmes offered by the Rwanda Basic Basic Education Board (REB) and the University of Rwanda College of Education (URCE)’, VVOB Country Programmes Manager, Marianne Kiggundu, said in a statement.
‘Participation in these programmes has shown positive effects on school leadership practices, creating an environment for quality teaching and learning to take place’.
In Kayonza, laptops will be used by secondary education STEM and ICT teachers to start after-school coding clubs with their learners, according to the statement.
‘I am very excited about receiving these laptops. At the school, we had only one laptop to be shared among all colleagues and we would have to borrow laptops from friends to be able to participate in online learning programmes’, Head Teacher at G.S Kagano, Ayinkamiye Louise, said.
‘As a school we would also rent two or three computers once a year to make our work easier. These laptops are really a game changer to increase our ICT skills and enable us to study online whenever needed’.
Source: Mastercard Foundation
Photo source: Mastercard Foundation