ICT in education/ E- Leaning in Rwanda Presented by: Hon. Olivier RWAMUKWAYA Minister of State in Charge of PrePrimary, Primary and Secondary Education May/2015

2 BACKGROUND Rwanda Education System is moving toward a student’s centric education supported by the integration of technology. The use of technology enables better teaching and better learning with students using digital, multimedia rich, interactive lessons enabling self-paced and collaborative learning. With this new approach the teacher becomes more of a facilitator empowering students with critical thinking, problem solving and innovation.

ICT in Primary Education O ne Laptop Per Child Program The ‘One Laptop per Child’ (OLPC) program provides primary students with an entry-level experience in basic computer literacy.  By the end of 2014, this program has distributed over 200,000 units/laptops/gagets to 410 primary schools giving access to 20% of students in primary 4,5,and 6  The on-site training for more than 10,000 head teachers and classroom teachers.  The ‘One Laptop per Child’ (OLPC) program provides primary students with an entry-level experience in basic computer literacy. 3

Major Components of the OLPC Program Schools Infrastructure Upgrade With the move towards integrating ICT in both the curriculum and as a tool for education, the electrification of schools is an important process. A fundamental step in upgrading schools infrastructure is to provide access to electricity. This was done in Rwanda by connecting schools to the national grid but also by using alternative energy sources such as Solar panels. This is followed by electrical wiring in classrooms with the provision of electrical plugs and lighting for grades 4 to 6 to enable usage. Development and Acquisition of Digital Content With the integration of ICT in learning, there is the need to provide digital content which correlates with the curriculum. This has been done in Rwandan primary schools by the introduction of an eco-system made of a school server that is loaded with digital content designed in direct alignment with the national curriculum, a local wireless network through which the content can be directly accessed and external storage for out of class access. 4

Components of OLPC (Cont’d…) 5 Teachers Professional Development Teachers being the core implementers of the process of integration of technology in both the curriculum and as a tool for education, there has to be an element of professional development for the teachers on teaching using technology. In Rwanda, the deployment of laptops has been being done together with the training of teachers on how to introduce technology into regular classroom usage and adaptation of the digital content provided through the school server. up to now 10,251 (15.6%) primary teachers and more than 100 tutors from 5 TTCs and one school of excellence in science have been trained and 63 ICT clubs have been established across the country as well as a elearning portal to facilitate teacherss access to ICT pedagogical materials. That is School technical support, maintenance and Repair With the provision of technology in schools, equipment is provided for usage in classrooms and also to access supplementary content provided. There has to be technical support system designed to provide maintenance and repairs for the equipment deployed. In Rwanda, a maintenance and technical support system was put in place to do repairs on the laptops and school server systems provided for all the schools. Arrangements are being made to provide Provincial technical support centers which are to be easily accessible for the schools.

ICT in Secondary Schools 6 Rwanda Education Commons (REC) project was designed to develop the capacity, content, and platform to establish a network for education stakeholders that would provide opportunities for collaboration, learning, and sharing knowledge. This project helped to improve quality of teaching through the expansion of access to digital resources for teacher training. -Rwanda education portal: and elearning portal:

ICT in Secondary Schools (Cont’d) 7 Rwanda Education Commons (REC) project was designed to develop the capacity, content, and platform to establish a network for education stakeholders that would provide opportunities for collaboration, learning, and sharing knowledge. This project helped to improve quality of teaching through the expansion of access to digital resources for teacher training. -Rwanda education portal: and elearning portal:

ICT in Secondary Schools (Cont’d) 8 The ICT Department (REB) has provided 1,330 desktop units to 101 secondary schools since 2012, while providing IT subject-teacher and computer maintenance training for teaching staff in collaboration with the Tumba College of Technology. Other secondary schools have used local fundraising to acquire desktop and laptop units to permit students to develop IT skills, while integrating technology with subject area content. The Ministry of Education is currently exploring the consolidation of ICT services within departments and affiliated agencies as a way of improving efficiency and effectiveness of operations and service delivery. The sustainability of ICT will be a challenge in terms of funding, procurement, infrastructure, maintenance and security; however, public- private partnerships may prove to be a satisfactory option for further development of ICT in education. More recently, the government of Rwanda has signed a contract with Positivo BGH to set up a computer assembly plant in Rwanda with the government guarantee of purchasing 750,000 devices over 5 years.

Figure 7.4: Schools with electrical power sources 9

ICT in TVET AND Higher Education  For Rwanda’s ICT led vision to be realized, it is critical that higher education and TVET sector produce graduates who are ready for the workforce and have all the required competencies and skills to work and thrive in a competitive 21st century economy.  At the Higher Education and TVET levels we are focusing on improving relevance, quality and workforce readiness depending on the field of study, increasing access to tertiary education through the establishment of an Open Distance and eLearning Institution, and to promote research and innovation through research infrastructure and creating cross functioning innovation hubs in partnership with industry. Up to now the UR/CE has partnership with 5 indian universities that are offering online both undergraduate and masters courses courses through videoconference technology. They have signed an MoU.  Rwanda will operationalize a high speed NREN to serve the entire education sector and set up HPC centers dedicated to cutting edge research and innovation. Some of these centers may be developed in collaboration with the global research community. Innovation Hubs will be developed in collaboration with industry. 10

Key Performance Indicators 11 Key Indicators Primary Education Computer to Teacher ratio1:171:8 Computer to Pupils ratio1:401:15 % of primary schools with computer infrastructure39%49%499 Total number of OLPC distributed152,768203,763204,321 Total number of primary schools covered by OLPC program % of primary schools connected to internet6% 8% % of primary schools with networked computer lab1% 2% Secondary Education Computer to Teacher ratio1:61:71:6 Computer to Students ratio1:401:441:32 % of secondary schools connected to internet18%14%16,9% % of secondary schools with networked computer lab25%31% Tertiary Education Computer to Admin. Staff Ratio1:21:11:2 Computer to Acad. Staff Ratio1:41:21:3 Computer to Students ratio1:191:101:7 % of Higher Learning Institutions connected to Broadband internet100% % of Higher Learning Institutions with a networked computer lab100%

Challenges  The major challenges identified pertain to lack of infrastructure, coupled with high costs to acquire power, equipment and affordable connectivity. There is also an absence of a culture around the use of ICT which restricts the adoption of such tools in education, and a limited availability of digital content.  All of the above challenges are being addressed in the comprehensive ICT in Education Master plan including the change in the culture around ICT in Education and the importance to view ICT in Education as not just the computers and software but also a solution to strengthen and improve access to the whole learning environment. 12

ICT4E Master Plan 13 The ICT in Education Master Plan which is currently under development has a vision to “Accelerate Education Transformation in Rwanda by using technology to drive student-centric adaptive education environment.”

ICT4E Master Plan (Cont’d…) 14 In order to achieve the aims of this master plan we are focusing on: Providing schools with the necessary power requirements whether by grid connected or Solar; Providing Schools with the necessary ICT devices and other equipment to enable ICT based learning/teaching for all subjects; Providing adequate broadband access to all schools leveraging the 4G LTE programme; and Establish content distribution cloud solution for students to be able to access the digital content anytime anywhere. The solution will include the design and provision of SMART Classrooms in schools at all levels of education.

Thank you Murakoze Cyane