Rwanda

From WAET

Claver P. Hategekimana
Teaching & Learning Center Coordinator at Wenatchee Valley College

Niki Davis, Dr. Leah Keino, and Dr. Matthias Nduwingoma
College of Education, University of Canterbury

Leah Keino
Family and Consumer Sciences Education and Studies, Iowa State University

Matthias Nduwingoma
Computer Science Department, Kigali Institute of Education

Contents 1 Geographic position of Rwanda 2 History of education of in Rwanda 3 Structure of the education systems 4 Distribution of schools, teachers, and ICT resources 4.1 Pre-primary education 4.2 Primary education 4.3 Secondary education 4.4 Access to Higher education for teacher training 5 Education and Technology policy 5.1 Educational and ICT initiative highlights 6 References 7 Related Chapters 8 About the Authors 9 Citation

Geographic position of Rwanda

Rwanda, also known as the “Land of a Thousand Hills” is a landlocked country located in east-Central Africa. The nickname the “Land of a Thousand Hills” comes from its mountainous altitude and deep valleys that cover most of the country. The country is small (26,338 km2 or 10,169 sq. miles) and lies at 75 miles south of the equator, at 880 miles west of the Indian Ocean, and 1,250 miles east of the Atlantic Ocean. The highest peek is Mount Kalisimbi: 4507m (14,786 feet) and the lowest point is Rusizi River valley: 950m (3,116 feet) above sea level (Kanimba & Mesas, 2000). Beside its natural beauty, Rwanda is home to some of the only 700 remaining mountain gorillas.

In January 2006, the decentralization initiative of the government of Rwanda abolished the twelve provinces (prefectures) and re-organized the country into five local government structures: Kigali Province (Kigali city, the capital of Rwanda), North Province, East Province, South Province, and West Province. Unlike many African countries, all Rwandans speak the same language “Kinyarwanda.” The official languages are Kinyarwanda, English and French. Commercial centers also use Swahili, a language spoken in most of East Africa. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa (African Peer Review Mechanism, 2005) with very few natural resources. Despite its fertile ecosystem, about 90% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming (PROFIT, 2007); food imports are required, as this farming does not keep pace with population growth. About 60% of the population lives in absolute poverty (Murenzi, 2005). Rwanda, a former German and Belgian colony, is now a member of the East African Community (PROFIT, 2007) and is striving to become a member of British Commonwealth of Nations.

Unfortunately, the country is also known throughout the world by the 1994 genocide, which was a systematic ethnic division for a political gain. Rwanda is emerging, however, from the effects of the genocide to become a model country for information and communication technologies (ICT). The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development of 2007 named Rwanda and Kenya the two countries leading East Africa in ICT Revolution. Both countries received an ICT diffusion index (ICTDI) of 0.231. ICTDI is a function of connectivity and access. Connectivity is measured by the number of Internet hosts, personal computers, telephone mainlines, and mobile subscribers per capita. Access to the Internet is determined by research that includes an estimate of known Internet users , adult literacy rate, cost of local call, and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. On a sorted list of 180 countries, Luxembourg received the highest rank (ICTDI=0.815), United State ranked number two (ICTDI=0.794), and Niger received the lowest rank (ICTDI: 0.129). See UN, 2006; Cunningham, 2007 and Mazimpaka, 2007.

History of education of in Rwanda

Rwanda’s educational systems are linked to its colonial past. In early 1900’s Rwanda maps showed the country as part of the African territories under the German Protectorate. In 1914-1918, Belgium supplanted the Germans in Rwanda and placed the country under Belgian administration in 1923. In 1961, the government declared the country a republic and one year later, Rwanda acquired independence and became a member of the United Nations (Klotchkoff, 1990; Kanimba & Mesas, 2000). As noted by George (2001), “…pre-colonial education in Rwanda was largely informal. Parents and relatives educated their children regarding Rwandan cultures and values throughout their childhood in a community-based system or itorero. This method emphasized practical work skills as well as traditional storytelling and dancing. The community trained boys and girls separately and according to their future responsibilities, expecting boys to follow in their father’s footsteps and become the head of the household, while teaching girls housekeeping and child rearing duties.” See George, 2001; and McNab and Mohamed, 2006, pp. 4)

The arrival of both colonialism and Christianity was the beginning of formal education introduced in Rwanda by 1900s. Colonizers, the church and later the government influenced education primarily to serve their own interests rather than those of the people. By 1908, the Catholic Church had introduced the first modern school in Save, a small town in the Butare region. By 1913, they also established the first major seminary in Kabyayi (Rwanda Development Gateway, 2003). The Belgian colonial administration willingly let the missionaries carry the burden of running schools. Missionaries envisioned just enough schooling for the masses to master the catechism and accept the church without rejecting their traditional way of life and occupations (Walker-Keleher, 2006, pp. 37). Missionaries also needed a higher quality education for African clergy.

In 1923 through 1925, the colonial government experimented with schools of its own and established four government schools to train clerks, aides, and other low-level posts in the administration. The institutions proved to be more expensive and of lower quality than mission institutions; and were closed in 1929. As a result, the Belgian administrators indirectly decided to control the church schools (as opposed to competing with them) through contracts and subsidies (Walker-Keleher, (2006). The first real institution of higher education in Rwanda was Grand Séminaire de Nyakibanda (GSN) which was established in 1936 by the Catholic Church specifically to train men for priesthood (Mazimpaka & Daniel, 2001; World Bank, 2004). Students who were not training for priesthood had no other choice except to pursue their higher education outside Rwanda, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or in Belgium.

The National University of Rwanda was the country’s first comprehensive institution of higher education and remains the largest university. Established in 1963, the government cooperated with the Congregation of the Dominicans from the Province of Quebec in Canada to form the institution. During the genocide, the university was closed but was reopened in April, 1995. Given this history and the deaths that occurred during the massacres, the rebuilding of a balanced educational system of Rwanda was and is extremely challenging. In addition to the deaths of teachers and students, schools were destroyed or looted. For example, out of 1,836 primary schools only 648 were operational in October, 1994 (Obura, 2003). Higher education also continues to suffer from the “missing generation” due to the genocide, poverty, and health challenges including AIDS. The current government’s approach is to promote social cohesion and national unity. The philosophy, now, stresses that ethnic groups no longer exist and the idea ‘We are all Rwandan’ is actively promoted (King, 2006; African Peer Review Mechanism, 2005). Reshaping the history of Rwanda and its curriculum is somewhat desirable, but its effectiveness is still a research question under scrutiny.

Structure of the education systems

There are four levels of formal education in Rwanda: pre-school (age: 3-6), primary (age: 6-12), secondary (age: 12-18), and higher education (age: 18 and over). Private groups or individuals fund and manage all pre-schools. Tuition and fees are usually the limiting factors for children from disadvantaged families.

Primary education is free, mandatory, and available to every child, but there are barriers stoping children from attending school. Ignorance of parents and gross poverty, specifically, lack of food, weaken enthusiasm for school. In 2001, World Food Program (WFP) implemented a highly promising project to increase elementary school attendance. The program provided lunches (rice, corn meal, beans) to about 270,000 schools children (300 elementary schools) where people do not have enough to eat. Student absences went from 40% to 5%, (UN, 2006). As outlined in the Education Sector Strategic Policy (Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, 2006; see also, Bigsten & Yanagizawa, 2005), the government of Rwanda is committed maximize access to universal primary education by 2010 and basic education for all by 2015. To achieve a universal primary education the government must insure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling (six years: P1 through P6 or equivalent to American K1-6).

Secondary education comprises two cycles. A lower cycle lasts three years (Tronc Commun) which consists of one curriculum “basic education” for all secondary schools. At the completion of Tronc Commun, which is equivalent to American K7-9, students have to pass national exam before they can proceed to the upper cycle which also lasts three years. The upper cycle (Equivalent to American K10-12) consists of varying curriculum based on the major of study a student chooses to pursue. There are three main streams: general education, vocational training, and technical education. Acceptance at publically funded and government-assisted secondary schools is somewhat competitive; students have to pass a national exam to enter.

Before the genocide of 1994, there were three public and five private institutions of higher education. Institut Supérieur de Finance Public was one of the public institutions, it was established in 1987 but did not reopen after the genocide of 1994 (World Bank, 2004; Niyonkuru, 2005). Currently, there are six public and ten private institutions. Only the West Province out of five provinces of Rwanda does not have an institution of higher education (see Table 1).

Table 1: List of public and private institutions of higher education in Rwanda, in 2008.

	Higher Education Institutions	Website	Year Started	Region	Province
	Public institutions
1	National University of Rwanda (NUR)	www.nur.ac.rw	1963	Butare	South Province
2	Institut supérieur d’Agronomie et de l’élevage (ISAE)	www.isae.ac.rw	1989	Ruhengeri	North Province
3	Kigali Health Institute (KHI)	www.khi.ac.rw	1996	Kigali	Kigali Province
4	Kigali Institute of Sciences & Technology (KIST)	www.kist.ac.rw	1997	Kigali	Kigali Province
5	Kigali Institute of Education (KIE)	www.kie.ac.rw	1999	Kigali	Kigali Province
6	School of Finance and Banking (SFB)	www.sfb.ac.rw	2003	Kigali	Kigali Province
	Private Institutions
1	Grand Séminaire Saint Charles Nyakibanda (GSN)		1936	Butare	South Province
2	Faculté de Théologie Protestante de Butare (FTPB)		1969	Butare	South Province
3	Université Adventiste d’Afrique Central (UAAC)		1984	Kigali	Kigali Province
4	Universite Libre de Kigali, ULK)	www.ulk.ac.rw	1996	Kigali	Kigali Province
5	Université Laique Adventiste de Kigali (UNILAK)	www.unilak.ac.rw	1997	Kigali	Kigali Province
6	Institut Superieur Pedagocique de Gitwe (ISPG)		1997	Gitarama	South Province
7	Université Catholique de Kabgayi (UCK)	www.uck.ac.rw	2002	Gitarama	South Province
8	Université d’Agriculture, de Technology et d’Education de Kibungo (UNATEK)		2003	Kibungo	East Province
9	Kigali Institute of Management (KIM)	www.kimrw.com	2003	Kigali	Kigali Province
10	Institut d’Enseignement Supérieur de Ruhengeri (INES),	www.ines.ac.rw	2003	Ruhengeli	North Province

Distribution of schools, teachers, and ICT resources

The central government through the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) is responsible for programs such as educational policy, curriculum development, approval of educational materials, and evaluation while local government is responsible for the execution of policy and planning (African Development Fund, 2006). Estimates for 2004 put the primary school dropout rate at 15.2% due to cost associated with schooling such as school materials, uniform, obligation to support families (UNDP-Rwanda, 2007), unqualified teachers, and large class sizes. In all levels of education, there is a great need to strengthen the relationship between qualified teachers, IT infrastructure, and detailed curriculum that is inline with desired educational outcomes. It is expected that a digital divide will increase at a national level because the IT is currently inaccessible in most rural areas where finance and basic infrastructure (example: Electricity) are lacking.

Pre-primary education

Institutionalized in 1985, pre-schooling is still not widely available. According to the reports of MINEDUC and African National fund, in 2001, only two were government-owned out of 257 daycare centers. These daycare centers catered to around 187,000 children (9.3%) out of about 2 million pre-school aged children. Three-hundred and twenty-seven teachers, the majority of whom had only in-service training, managed the centers. Even now, there is no national training program for pre-primary teachers. The government offers technical support and plans to help the private sector provide such services. During the 2003-2004 academic year, there were 28,103 pre-schoolers (male: 49.4%, female: 50.6%) and 738 pre-primary schoolteachers (male: 13.3%, female: 86.7%) with a 1:38 teacher-student ratio (MINEDUC, 2003; African Development Fund, 2006).

Primary education

Unlike pre-schooling, most of the primary schools are government-owned; private owners manage a few schools in major cities. Double shifts are a common practice in the first three years of primary schooling. One teacher leads one class in the morning and the same teacher leads a different class in the afternoon. The teacher-student ratio is about 1:60 (See Table 2) compared to the standard 1:40 suggested ratio by World Bank and other international organizations (Herz & Gene, 2004). During the first three years of primary education (equivalent to the American K1-3), the language of instruction is Kinyarwanda, while the remaining three years (Equivalent to the American K4 -6) are taught in either French or English (the educational institutions have a choice of the language of instruction). In K6, students take a national exam that qualifies them to proceed to secondary school. French, a language that enjoyed monopolistic influence since the beginning of formal education in Rwanda is now fading away as the government has made a determination to replace it by English. This adds another layer of complexity on how to maintain or perhaps improve the quality of instruction while teachers struggle to learn and teach in a language that is foreign to them. Hopefully, the Ministry of Education of Rwanda learned from the 1993-experience of Mexican educational system. In 1993, Mexico reformed the secondary school curriculum while the country reformed its secondary school teacher college curriculum in 1999 to provide a stronger emphasis on subject-matter knowledge, pedagogical context knowledge and practice. This meant that during a six year period teachers were expected to teach the more specialized subjects demanded by the new curriculum without any formal support (Santibanez, Vernez & Razquin, 2005). Pre-service training of primary school teachers is one of the tracks during secondary education in a number of schools. Higher education offers both pre- and in-service training. According to the report of the MINEDUC (2006), 452 primary schools and 479 classrooms were built in different provinces during 2005. This rebuilding effort aimed to increase education access, in order to address poverty and contribute to economic growth.

One of the challenges the primary education sector faces is lack of access to information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. Between 2002 and 2005, 1,116 computers (196 desktops and 1,018 laptop and solar power supply systems) were distributed by MINEDUC to primary schools through a World Links Project (UNESCO, 2007). However, this did not reach rural schools. World Links is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to improve educational outcomes, economic opportunities, and global understanding for youth using information and communications technology and novel approaches to learn. The first rural school to receive computers was Kagenge primary school located in Bugesera Region in the East Province. In October 2006, this school received two computers used for administrative work, rather than teaching (Earth Institute News, 2006). In July 2008, Rwanda received 5,000 laptops computers for primary school children through One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), an initiative that was started by Nicholas Negroponte. Kagugu primary school in Gasobo District, Kigali and Rwamagana primary school in Kigali are the first Rwandan recipients of OLPC laptops. Sometime this year, the country expects to receive an additional consignment of 100,000 laptops. This is probably the most promising initiative that will provide rural and poor children with computers literacy.

It is not common to use computers to enhance teaching in primary schools because teachers have little to no computer training and ICT support is not available. The exception is two private primary schools in Kigali that have computer laboratories for students use, one of them uses computers to enhance teaching throughout primary and secondary levels. Students at this school enjoy quality education and the benefits of digital technology in the same way children in privileged communities of the western nations do.

Table 2: Population of student teacher and infrastructure at primary education level (adopted from Murenzi, 2005)

Years	1995-96	1999-00	2001-02	2003-04	2005
Schools	1,845	2,093	2,172	2,262	2,295
Students	1,039,657	1,431,692	1,534,510	1,752,588	1,857,841
Teachers	18,394	26,187	26,024	28,254	29,033
Teacher-student ratio	1:57	1:54	1:59	1:62	1:64

Secondary education

In 2003-2004, 203,551 students were enrolled in 504 secondary schools of which 147 (29.2%) were government owned, 139 private subsidized, and 218 private. A 13.26% of all secondary students were in a teacher-training track that prepares primary school teachers. In 2002, there were 13 public teacher training secondary schools that offered pre- and in-service teacher training to help improve the quality of teaching staff by providing necessary professional knowledge and skills to some 65% under-qualified teachers (Mukamusoni, 2006; African Development Fund, 2006).

By 2003-2004, 20% were women of 7,750 secondary teachers. This percentage is different from a worldwide trend. One explanation is a weak relationship between enrollment and completion rates of female in secondary and higher education (See Table 3 and Table 4). A second justification is a shortage of employment options. Unlike in the Western nations where people have relatively balanced access to higher education and jobs in areas of their interests, in Rwanda women cannot yet compete on an equal footing. There is a need for a gender equitable learning environment; teaching that is student-centered with more female teachers providing role models for girls (Huggins & Randell, 2007).

Currently, in-service training of secondary teachers is concentrated at the National University of Rwanda and Kigali Institute of Education. Ten distance-training centers (DTC) opened in 2001 and about 500 teachers graduated in January 2007. Two colleges of education with a 2-year cycle were created in Kavumu in the Gitarama Region, South Province and in Rukara in Kibungo, East Province. These colleges aim to train 2,800 teachers at the level of Tronc Cummun every year and for eight years. Kigali Institute of Education is in charge of developing this curriculum.

There have been a large number of initiatives through both the Ministry of Education and the non-government organizations to develop ICT infrastructure in secondary schools. In 2005, the MINEDUC distributed 4,000 computers to secondary schools so that each received ten computers. Around the same time, World Links provided 400 computers to 20 secondary schools. Each computer laboratory of these 20 schools served as a training center for both the primary and secondary school teachers. In addition, a Human Resources Development Project, New partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) and Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA) and Capital Access Index (CAI) projects have distributed 556 computers in high schools. Another positive highlight is that 40 secondary schools in Kigali were connected to wireless broadband Internet with a long-term goal of extending connections to all schools (MINEDUC, 2006).

Access to Higher education for teacher training

By 2003-2004, there were 6 government and 8 private institutions of higher education with a total of 25,233 students, 39.1% of whom were female. Science and technology accounted for 14.1% of the total higher education student enrollments (MINEDUC, 2005; African Development Fund, 2006). In 1999, Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) was established to address the shortage of qualified teachers in secondary schools, and managers of technical and vocational schools. In 2000, KIE established a distance-learning program with support from the United Kingdom (UK), Department for International Development (DFID and the University of London). By 2006, the program had served 500 lower level (Tronc Commun) secondary school teachers. Ten study centers were opened in different districts as outlet for the initiative. In KIE, the first group of students with bachelor degrees in computer science and an education major graduated in 2006. Now, a Cisco Academy is to be created in KIE to enhance student technical skills.

Education and Technology policy

Rwanda has made some positive progress toward several areas mentioned in the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. These include:

1. Implementation of universal primary education, giving all boys and girls access to full course of primary schooling,
2. Creating of gender equality and empowerment of woman through elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education,
3. Establishment of global development partnerships which with the private sector to increase access and available benefits through information and communication technology. See Table 3 and Table 4 (adapted from UNDP-Rwanda, 2007; UNDP-Rwanda, 2004.)

Implementation of ICT programs in educational system of Rwanda faces many challenges including:

• Lack of ICT hardware and software,
• Lack of ICT teaching material to supplement existing curricula,
• Insufficient qualified personnel,
• A wide and increasing gap between rural and urban communities in terms of factors which affect access to technology (e.g. electricity and poverty),
• The expense of ICT network infrastructure and maintenance.

One thing Rwanda has in common with Europe is per-minute billing for local calls. This is a major barrier to Internet access (GILC.ORG, 2000). A single flat rate for local dial-up to Internet service providers (ISP) is currently lacking. (See Table 5: Information and communication technology usage in Rwanda). The country sees EASSy as a substantial opportunity for telecommunication advancement. EASSy is an 8,430km fiber optic cable linking countries on the Southern, Eastern and Northern African coastlines to the global connection (Gatare, 2005). As shown in Table 3, about 1% of Rwandans have access to the Internet, whereas more than 70% of citizens in developed countries such as the United States have connections at home. The government of Rwanda hopes to have all Rwandan schools networked with standard ICT and managed by trained personnel by 2013 (Musoni, 2007). They are optimistic at this time, though.

Table 3: Rwanda Millennium Development Goals Indicators

	1991	1996	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Net enrollment ratio in primary  ducation, both sexes	66.2	-	-	72.2	73.8	78.1	73.5	74.0	-
Net enrollment ratio in primary education, boys	66.5	-	-	71.4	72.6	76.7	71.9	72.4	-
Net enrollment ratio in primary education, girls	65.9	-	-	73.0	75.0	79.6	75.0	75.6	-
Primary completion rate, both sexes	35.4%	-	20.7%	21.9%	26.7%	35.2%	35.5%	-	-
Personal computers	-	-	-	9,950	10,715	12,093	15,085	19,211	28,000
Percentage of people who own computers	-	-	-	0.13%	0.13%	0.14%	0.18%	0.21%	0.30%
Total Internet users	-	50	5,000	20,000	25,000	31,000	38,000	50,000	100,000
Percentage of Internet users	-	0	0.06%	0.25%	0.31%	0.37%	0.45%	0.55%	1.08%

Source: United Nations Statistics Division, Millennium Development Goals Indicators. Available at: http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Default.aspx

Table 4: Male-Female Student Enrollment.

Education level	2001-2002		2003-2004		Projection: Total students, both sexes
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Year 2010	Year 2015
Primary	763,277	771,233 (50.3%)	862,071	890,571 (50.8%)	2,488,675	3,102,081
Secondary	79,332	77,792 (49.5%)	106,540	97,011 (47.7%)	340,948	505,824
Higher	10,497	5,443 (34.1%)	15,368	9,865 (39.1%)	61,569	91,848

Source: Adopted from a presentation of Romain Murenzi, ”Success & Challenges of the Educational System and Development of National Science Strategy in Rwanda”. Presentation to the Fifth Annual Government of Rwanda Development Partners’ Meeting December 1 & 2, 2005.

Table 5: Information and Communication Technology Usage in Rwanda

Economic sector	Segment	Estimated Level of ICT Engagement
		Basic ICT	Networked ICT	Intensive ICT
Public sector	National Government	33%	47%	0%
	Local Government	5%	1%	0%
Private sector	Large Business	10%	5%	2%
	Small & Medium Enterprise	15%	10%	1%

Source: “On the Frontier 2003: Report on ICT Usage Survey,” Oct-Mar. 2002.

Educational and ICT initiative highlights

Many educational and ICT initiatives have contributed to the redevelopment of Rwandan education. One initiative which has the potential to increase ICT skills is the Transfer of Knowledge through Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN) Program. Human resources development and “capacity building” sparked the adoption of the TOKTEN-Rwanda Volunteer Program. Established in 2002, the program was created to mobilize Rwandan professionals in the diaspora urging them to return home for short periods of time to serve their country in both public and private institutions. ICT was one of many skills participants brought back to the homeland. Every year, a group of these volunteers takes assignments mostly in institutions of higher education and public organizations. For example, in the summer 2007, the first author of this article, Claver P. Hategekimana, volunteered to teach an advanced web application development class, a required course for fourth-year students majoring in computer science at the National University of Rwanda. He also taught principals of economics for computer scientists at Kigali Institute of Education. Through opportunities like this, expatriated nationals have opportunities to visit with the families they left behind while contributing to the development of their country of birth.

To help provide more qualified teachers for Rwanda, the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) has started collaboration with various institutions to develop training through e-learning programs. These partnerships include MIT’s open courseware, UK’s Open University, and Sun Microsystem’s e-learning material (e-Curri). Since January 2007, these and other virtual libraries and journals have become electronically accessible to faculty and students.

KIE has also initiated a Center for Distance Learning with the University of South Africa (UNISA), and in collaboration with Iowa State University – Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, the institute has started to develop a more student centered teaching approach. KEI continues to be instrumental in supporting and reinforcing student centered learning. Other institutions also have promising technological initiatives. For example, Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), established in 1997 at a former army barracks in Kigali, implemented a program called Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer. The program aims to conduct applied research which would lead to an environmentally-friendly atmosphere appropriate to technological innovations (Murenzi & Hughes, 2006).

In August 2007, the Global e-schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI) appointed an officer to work in Rwanda. Established in 2004, GeSCI was the outcome of United Nations ICT Task Force work. The group identified education as an area in critical need of development; one where Information and Communication Technologies have the potential to make positive impacts. GeSCI provides strategic advice to Ministries of Education in developing countries about effective use of ICT in education and community development.

In 2001, Rwanda participated in the Lusaka, Zambia OAU/AU (Organization of African Unity/African Union) summit that adopted NEPAD. One of the missions of the NEPAD program is to accelerate development of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and to bridge the digital divide within Africa and the rest of the world. NEPAD launched and piloted e-schools project in 16 African countries including Rwanda (Gatare, 2005). The six Rwandan secondary schools to benefit directly from NEPAD are:

• Ecole Secondaire de Shangi in Cyangugu,
• Ecole des Sciences de Sante (ESSA) de Gisenyi, in Gisenyi,
• College du Christ-Roi, in Butare,
• Lycee de Zaza, in Kibungo,
• College Saint Andre, in Kigali.
• Groupe Scolaire de Muhura, in Byumba.

In 2004, these six schools were given a model computer classroom with additional resources of a laser printer, an interactive white board, curricula software, and a wireless network reaching up to 2 km. Support came from Cisco and Microsoft. Four laptops for teachers were part of the package as well as special training and coordination. Technical support, teacher training and the integration of ICT into many curricula, however, is likely to remain a challenge for some time.

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Related Chapters

In this separate section, the authors describe a Rwandan school. The Case of ACEJ secondary school

About the Authors

Dr. Claver P. Hategekimana is the Teaching & Learning Center Coordinator at Wenatchee Valley College. His doctoral studies were in Human Computer Interaction with a concentration in Curriculum and Instructional Technology. Hategekimana has growing interest in distance learning, effectiveness of educational technologies, virtual communities, adult learning, and use information technology to empower isolated communities. He enjoys taking a vacation in Africa where he can teach a computer technology course in a college or high school setting.

Dr. Niki Davis, is Chair of the College of Education, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Davis is interested in preparation of future teachers and teacher educators especially in relation to flexible and distance learning and also change with educational technology, including intercultural competence.

Dr. Leah Keino, is an Assistant Professor in the Family and Consumer Sciences Education and Studies in Iowa State University and a member of the Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching. Her research interests include the application of electronic portfolios, service learning and peace education in post conflict societies.

Dr. Matthias Nduwingoma is Senior Lecturer and Head of Computer Science Department in Kigali Institute of Education. He holds a “Doctorate de Troisieme Cycle in Computer Applications” with a specialization in computer network security (Intrusion Detection System/IDS). His current research interests are in the development of ICT in education and he is the team leader of the proposed KIE ‘Scientific Research Center in ICT.

Citation

APA Citation: Hategekimana, C. P., Davis, N., Keino, L., & Nduwingoma, M. (2009, October). Rwanda. In M. Orey, T. Amiel, & J. McClendon (Eds.), The web almanac of educational technologies. Retrieved <insert date>, from http://www.waet.uga.edu/