“An energy and enthusiasm that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end”

I want you to imagine that you have received a memo from your headteacher that you have to attend a meeting after school. The memo does not state the subject matter of the meeting but simply states the time and says in bold IMPORTANT. At the meeting you are told that you will no longer be teaching in English but will instead be switching to Spanish. How do think you would feel? Please take a moment to contemplate this.

This is the very challenge many teachers in Rwanda have had to face since switching from teaching in French to teaching in English seven years ago. In 2008 the Rwandan government announced a switch to teaching in English. They said this was key to regional and global business and trade. Having just spent a month working in Rwandan schools I have been able to see where English is developing and where there are still challenges.

As I mentioned in my last blog I was taking part in the Global Learning Partnerships programme, which is organised by The Wood Foundation and sends teachers from Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus and Moray to work in Rwandan schools with I.E.E. (International Education Exchange aka Inspire, Educate and Empower) mentors. The I.E.E. mentors are involved in teacher training and are vital in supporting the switch to English.

I was based at G.S. Gasaka School in the Nyamagabe district of the Southern Province. The first thing that struck me in the district and many other parts of the country is the beauty of the landscape. G.S. Gasaka looks over one of many spectacular valleys in the region.

I was introduced to the I.E.E. mentor I was going to be working with in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, the evening before travelling to Gasaka. His name is Boaz and he is a Ugandan national and has been a mentor for a few years. Boaz became an excellent guide to Rwandan education and activities at G.S. Gasaka, as well as a good friend.

Gasaka School is very close to Kigeme refugee camp which hosts refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The camp has its own school with a role of around 6,000 but due to the volume of children in the camp around half of Gasaka’s role are refugee children. The overall role of the whole school is around 2,000. This has meant that teachers are educating classes of around 40–60 learners. Pupils sit at benches attached to a long desk and learn from the teacher at the front of the room.

On my first day at Gasaka I was welcomed by the headteacher and staff. I was asked various questions in the staffroom about my personal and professional life that helped the staff in getting to know me. One of the first activities that I took part in was to observe a couple of lessons with Boaz. He explained to me that observing lessons was very much to support the teachers with their strengths and areas for improvement. Something that struck me when observing teachers in Rwanda is how good they are at energising their learners at the start of lessons. They use many songs and rhymes to do so. Coupled with the enthusiasm the pupils already show, they are very much ready to learn. Boaz also helps the teachers with identifying learning objectives and planning. Feedback is also given straight after observations so that the teachers can build on their skills quickly.

As well as observing lessons I was asked to provide some learning experiences with the children and did so to support problem solving in maths as well as strategies for reading lessons. I also carried out CPD on reading strategies with the staff.

On the whole lessons varied. With the challenge of having to teach in English some teachers are relying on textbooks that have outdated literacy and numeracy concepts. Through the school based mentors I.E.E. are trying to implement a more progressive and active approach to learning. This can be seen through various projects taking place at Gasaka including an art group who produced books based on Rwandan life for me to bring back to Scotland. The drawings by Primary 5 pupils are detailed, imaginative and of a high quality. As well as this I was given items made by a knitting group that included a book bag and a table cloth.

On top of this there is an enterprise initiative taking place at Gasaka where the children are learning farming techniques whilst growing crops to (hopefully) be sold.

Boaz also runs an English club where pupils are encouraged to recite poems, perform songs, create writing and take part in plays. I was given the opportunity to teach the children a Scottish song that they responded well to. They now know a few Scottish words to implement and enhance their English.

Friday morning assemblies at Gasaka are something that I will always be in awe of. With one teacher chanting a line the children sang back with an energy and enthusiasm that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Assemblies are an important way to get the day started. School starts at 7 am and ends at 5 pm. This is achieved with the children coming in two different shifts resulting in a very long day for the teachers.

Overall I had a very positive time at Gasaka. I was made to feel very welcome by the staff and children and shared some very memorable moments.

While working at Gasaka I stayed in a house nearby with my colleagues Adam Douglas, who is a physics teacher at Aberdeen Grammar, and Tim Whimster, who is a class teacher at Kittybrewster Primary School in Aberdeen. They were both placed at Kigeme Camp School. Our accommodation was basic but very comfortable comprising a living room, three bedrooms, a kitchen and a plumbed in toilet. This is a luxury a lot of the rest of our cohort didn’t have, having to use a long drop instead. We were also lucky to have electricity as this was not a feature of everyone’s home.

Going out and about in the local community gave us a real sense of how it can feel to be in a minority. Locals were not used to seeing white people and showed a lot of interest in us. This was mostly positive interest and everywhere we went we were usually accompanied by a group of children who wanted to chat with us.

As well as being based in various different schools the cohort also went back to Kigali for a few days to deliver CPD for the I.E.E. mentors. It was on one such occasion, half way through the trip, that I suffered a slight set back. During my stay at Gasaka I had noticed a lump on my upper right arm with reddened skin. I thought it was a bite so got it checked out at hospital in Kigali. The doctors discovered it was an abscess with around 8 cm of infected fluid underneath it. I was told I would have to go under general anaesthetic to get it removed. I had a dilemma, go back home and get it seen to or go ahead with the operation in Kigali. At that point I felt very alone and far from home but this was soon remedied by the care and love shown from I.E.E., the teachers in my cohort and The Wood Foundation who were on the other end of the telephone. Before I knew it there was a group at the hospital to support me. I was also given confidence by the knowledge and professionalism of the staff at King Faisal hospital in Kigali. A senior doctor told me that if I didn’t get the abscess and related fluid removed I could risk septicaemia. This made my decision for me and I decided to go with the operation. I was very impressed with the care I received at the hospital and my abscess wound has almost fully healed as I write. As a result of the operation and some other medical issues Adam, Tim and I had to spend the whole of our third week in Kigali. This however became a positive as we got to work in a city school as well as visiting a couple of nursery schools. This allowed us to make a comparison with the rural schools we had been working in.

There were many great moments in Rwanda and trips that the cohort took part in including visiting Nyungwe rainforest and going on a canopy walk, visiting Akagera National Park for a Safari, visiting the Volcanoes National Park in Virunga to spend time with a family of mountain gorillas and visiting a traditional cultural village where we took part in a mock traditional wedding, drank banana beer, danced like warriors and gifted goats to local families.

However the main thing I will always remember about Rwanda is the warmth, friendliness and love of the people from the many smiles and hellos to the passionate and celebratory send off the I.E.E. gave the cohort. I would highly recommend the Global Learning Partnerships programme to any teacher. It is very enriching and enlightening. My colleague Suzanne Munro (Craigievar Primary) from the cohort said, “Rwanda is a feeling, you can only get it when you are there.” It is certainly a feeling I would welcome any day.