Adapting secondary schooling in Rwanda to the context of COVID-19: Lessons from the Leaders in Teaching Initiative

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Quality secondary schooling is paramount to allowing youth to gain the skills and self-efficacy needed to transition to work and succeed in life, factors that further facilitate socio-economic transformation. Currently, however, a number of countries within Sub-Saharan Africa face considerable pressures on their secondary systems that detrimentally affect quality education provision and the development of relevant skills for employment and active participation in society. Within Rwanda, for instance, secondary schools experience numerous challenges that extend beyond increased demand. These include a high number of un- and under-qualified teachers, low levels of foundational literacy and numeracy skills, large class sizes and limited resources. In addition, the recent adoption of a competence-based curriculum, that demands from teachers skills and strategies for which they are not sufficiently equipped, brings further pressures that can detrimentally impact their capacity to deliver quality instruction. The pressures on secondary schooling are likely to be even more heightened in the context of COVID-19.

In response to the mass expansion of secondary education and the urgent need for reform, the Mastercard Foundation (MCF), as part of its Africa Works Strategy, has launched the Leaders in Teaching (LIT) initiative to help improve the quality, relevance and equity of secondary teaching across SSA. Established in Kigali, Rwanda in 2018, this initiative involves close cooperation with local and national stakeholders in African countries to prepare teachers to deliver quality and relevant learning. The LIT initiative aims to support teachers over the entire lifespan of their careers and engages multiple levels of the secondary education system. In doing this, its interventions are structured around the following four pillars: Recruit; Train; Lead; and Motivate.

As Learning Partners, Laterite in Rwanda and the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the University of Cambridge, UK, are supporting MCF in their goals through developing a robust quantitative and qualitative evidence base on how the LIT programme is working overall to support teacher quality and student learning in secondary schools. As part of our role, the REAL Centre and Laterite have developed an innovative approach for assessing teacher quality within the LIT and Rwandan context, with a particular focus on those who are most at risk of not learning, particularly in STEM subjects – including girls and students with disabilities. This has constituted a longitudinal study design centered around teachers and their teaching and a methodology using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Data for this were collected in the pre-COVID era. In the current context, the team responded swiftly to interview teachers and headteachers using phone surveys. These surveys have provided a flexible and timely approach for understanding whether and how they have been able to support continued learning during school closures, and their perspectives on what would be needed when schools re-open.

In this panel, we will present findings from quantitative and qualitative data collected prior to the pandemic. This will include presentations on findings in relation to: 1) a report on findings from focus group discussions with secondary school teachers to understand their views on how teaching quality can be assessed; 2) classroom observations conducted in mathematics classrooms using an adapted version of the World Bank’s Teach tool; and 3) examining associations between student achievement and school inputs, as reported within surveys undertaken by 350 schools leaders. These elements are all important in understanding the situation in schools before the pandemic hit, and so the challenges and opportunities that already faced teaching quality in Rwanda’s secondary schools. Following from this, we will share findings from phone surveys conducted with school leaders and STEM teachers in secondary schools to assess their experiences with supporting students during school closures as a result of COVID-19, and issues to consider when schools re-open. As part of this presentation, we will also discuss the implications of changes brought from the COVID-19 crisis on the Mastercard Foundation’s Leaders in Teaching initiative as well as our own study design for assessing changes in teacher quality.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Pauline Rose, University of Cambridge

Individual Presentations

• Understanding stakeholders’ perceptions of quality teaching in Rwandan secondary schools - Anthony Onwuegbuzie, University of Cambridge; Emma Carter, University of Cambridge; Nidhi Singal, University of Cambridge

• Learning about teaching quality from within the classroom: Evidence from Rwandan secondary schools - Emma Carter, University of Cambridge; Beatrice Ani-Asamoah, Laterite; Philip Leonard, Laterite; Pauline Rose, University of Cambridge

• School leadership and school quality in secondary education in Rwanda - Laura Le Saux, Laterite; Belise Kangabe, Laterite; Anthony Onwuegbuzie, University of Cambridge; Ricardo Sabates, University of Cambridge

• Effects of school closures during COVID-19 on Rwandan teachers and school leaders - Philip Leonard, Laterite; Emma Carter, University of Cambridge; Sam Nzaramba, Laterite; Pauline Rose, University of Cambridge

Discussant

• Eugene Ndabaga, University of Rwanda-College of Education