Why are Students not achieving the Foundational Reading and Mathematics Skills in Rwanda?

Guest blog by Dr. Flora Mutezigaju, David Mugabo, Emmanuel Niyomana Mico, Gervais Mabano, Valens Ngaboyera, Ntaganira Jean de Dieu

Rwanda aspires to become an upper-middle-income country by 2035, and a high-income country by 2050. Her development agenda is centered on prosperity and high-quality standards of life for all Rwandans. The realization of this vision is anchored on human capital development: the transformed workforce for higher productivity. To realize the transformative power of education, children need to acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skills as the building blocks for more advanced skills.  However, students in early grades fail to achieve the minimum levels of literacy and mathematics proficiencies.

The Learning Achievement in Rwandan Schools (LARS) found that student performance in English for P3 Literacy was low, with only 10.08% of the students meeting grade proficiency benchmarks in English, the current language of instruction in lower primary. Numeracy levels were much more positive (60.94% of the participants achieved the grade level benchmarks) when assessed in Kinyarwanda, however grade proficiency dropped to just 16% when assessing numeracy skills in English.

Over the last two decades, Rwanda has made great strides and reforms, which have led to many successes, especially in access to education for all. There is, however, more to be done to ensure that all students acquire the foundational learning skills that are important for future learning.

The Harvard Kennedy School provided an opportunity for the Rwanda team to take stock of the problem of poor learning outcomes among students of Rwanda in early grades and try to find solutions to this problem. The PDIA course was a nice opportunity for all of us to learn from each other and get views from different education stakeholders on the magnitude of the problems and understand what we should do together to address the issue.

Our key learnings from this course

Through out this course, we have leant so many things, however, I can single out the most five lessons we got from the course:

• Looking at the problem differently:  We have learnt that there are two ways of looking at a problem: solution-driven approach, and the problem-driven approach. We have realized that the latter is more effective in addressing a problem.
• Iteration of problem and solutions: Throughout this course, we have learnt that iterating to properly understand a problem rather than jumping to solutions is very key to problem solving. We have also learned the importance of iterating local problems to local solutions. We noted that instead of rushing to adopt solutions from different countries, we should first seek to understand solutions in our local context. Locals can own the problems and try to solve them knowing the politics, context and motivations. We need to listen to our people to iterate solutions and keep revisiting authorizers to keep their engagement.
• Team working and engagement: We appreciate that there is a benefit of working in a team, and the more you engage the real stakeholders, the more the team’s ability to solve a problem effectively.
• The Importance of building trust: We recognize the importance of trust in a team and its elements: authenticity, logic and empathy. People tend to trust you when they believe they are interacting with the real you (authenticity), when they have faith in your judgment and competence (logic), and when they feel that you care about them (empathy). We learn that building trust allows people to fully realize their power and capacity.
• Authorization is important: Building trustworthy relationships with the authorizer(s) and keeping the communication flowing about each step in the process is very important in solving complex problems in education.

The problem we worked on over the past 12 weeks

Over the past 12 weeks, we tried to find solutions to the problem of poor learning achievements of students in early grades, especially in foundational skills (Literacy and Numeracy). Foundation skills are a minimum requirement so that individuals can survive and progress in an international ‘knowledge-based’ economy and society. Through many discussions with different stakeholders, we have identified the causes to poor achievements in early grades and proposed the enabling conditions necessary for students to master the foundational learning skills, particularly reading, writing and mathematics.

 Insights we have about our problem through this process

From the many discussions and consultations, we had with different stakeholders in education, we learned that the problem is real, but also together we can put an end to this problem. We get insights on the cases of the problems and possible solutions to address the problems. We realized that the causes to poor achievements of students in foundations learning are the following:

• Poor teachers’ competencies: We realized that teachers lack requisite pedagogical training to teach foundational skills.
• Insufficiency of Teaching and Learning Resources: The quality, availability and use of textbooks and other teaching and learning materials are inadequate.
• Parental support for learning is low. Community participation in children’s schooling is low in Rwanda.Aside from paying school-related expenses, parents do not see it as their job to be involved in their child’s education.
• Insufficient supervision and monitoring of teaching and learning. While District Education Officers and Sector Education Officers are tasked to supervise and monitor schools, evidence suggests that DEOs and SEOs may not be properly trained to provide pedagogical oversight.
• Poor school readiness: We have realized that many children arrive at school without foundational skills (or abilities) to learn.

We noted that the above all the main causes of poor mastery of foundational skills, which also have many other subcauses. However, we observed that through proper trainings of teachers, the provisions of appropriate teaching and learning materials and the involvement of parents coupled with really time monitoring of the progress, students in Rwanda can learn and get the foundational learning skills essential for future learning.

The insights we got include the fact that learning achievement cannot be improved if any of the above causes are not addressed. It was also made clear that the problem is addressed by removing all the causes starting from their root causes.

This approach changed the way we tackle problems

The PDIA approach changed our understanding on how we must tackle problems in a more effective and sustainable way. Based on PDIA Principles, we will now be handling any problem by analyzing its root causes. We got more understanding that solving problems involves the understanding of the standing point of others. Why do they care and what they care about? To solve problems in education, we must engage all the people concerned. And from now on, we will ensure any decision taken to solve any issue in education has taken into consideration the views of as many people as possible. We have also changed our understanding that external best practices are always the best. We will try and identify our local best practices, because in the end, we have them.

Words of wisdom to share with fellow PDIA practitioners around the world

Dear Fellow PDIA practitioners, I hope you agree with us in Rwanda that this course is a life changing course. After doing it, you never remain the same. You change for the better.  Here are our words of wisdoms for you to note:

• A problem well stated is a problem half solved
•  Iterations lead towards right direction
• Celebrating small wins is a great way to build confidence and start feeling better about yourself. Do it everyday
•  Build Trust: Its presence cements relationships by allowing people to live and work together, feel safe and belong to a group.

This blog was written by the alumni of the PDIA for Education Systems Online Executive Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 56 participants from 8 countries successfully completed this 12-week program from September – December 2022.