A Volunteer Opportunity

In October, the Government of Rwanda decided to switch the entire public school system to teach in English. This change was announced and requested to happen as quickly as possible. This decision has roots in the bitter history of the French role in the genocide. Rwanda has accused more than 30 French politicians, officials and military officers of supporting the genocidal regime. Since then, they have closed the French Embassy, cultural centre, international school and radio station in Kigali.

Currently, 95% of schools teach in French, and Rwanda has 31,000 primary school teachers of whom about 4,700 have been trained in English. Of the 12,000 secondary school teachers, just 600 have been taught the language they will soon be expected to teach in. So how do they make this change quickly? Well, one way is to teach the teachers. I am neighbors with an incredible woman, Meredith, who writes text books and teaches English and has been here in Rwanda helping with this transition since early fall. When I met her I learned that she has been organizing a series of workshops where she teaches teachers in large groups on weekends. She described how all of the teachers travel from far and willingly give up every Saturday because they are so eager to learn. I immediately told Meredith I would love to volunteer at one of her workshops, wanting to experience something outside the health sector in Rwanda.

She took me up on my offer and invited me to volunteer this past Saturday from 7:30am-noon. I met with Meredith, her colleague Savannnah and another volunteer teacher on Friday to review the lesson. I thought I would be teaching simple english grammar or something, but learned that the lesson encompasses grammar as well as general education subjects, reading, speaking, and an emphasis on being learner-centered. I realized this was going to be much harder than I thought! My lesson involved teaching concrete thinking skills where I would ask the teachers to describe qualities of what makes them a good teacher, teach adjectives, review math skills while making an oragami cup, and symbollically place the qualities in the cup to share out loud with the class. Ambitious!

We traveled to a primary school called Kagugu which is just outside of town in Kigali. There are over 200 teachers who travel to this school each Saturday over 6 weeks. Not surprisingly, Meredith is always looking for volunteers to help with this program. I toured the school, saw a pretty bare library (below), and was told this is truly one of the nicest schools in Rwanda.


The classrooms are also pretty bare in the school, with simple benches in the front hall. Many of the teachers wear white coats to "distinguish" themselves in this profession.

I was given a couple pieces of chalk, some scratch paper, and an eraser to teach my lesson. The teachers were separated into three groups and we each taught our lesson three times.

With the first group it was excruciatingly difficult to speak slowly. Eventually I got in a groove and believe I became quite good at pronunciation with them. I took time to write things on the blackboard and use my "nice" handwriting.

Everyone paid very close attention when following my instructions for making the cup out of scratch paper.

I enjoyed making something (I love art!) and I liked the challenge of helping them through adjectives and phrasing sentences about the qualities and skills of good teachers (kind of a social worky activity too!)

They were so happy when they had completed the cup.

What I found most difficult was helping them discuss and share independent ideas about the lesson; how to customize the lesson for their own classroom; and identifying what was learner-centered about this lesson. I was uncomfortable with silences when I asked a question that recieved no immediate answer and I initially provided the answer too fast. I realized if I waited long enough, someone usually had an answer. Also, because I was not familiar with them individually, I had a hard time knowing when to push someone to give an answer or how best to customize the lesson for them. It was helpful to ask who among them were math, science, and language teachers for example. This helped me to connect with the group and encourage them to use critical thinking about the lesson.

This experience was exhausting and I know I could not do this everyday! I really appreciated trying my hand at something new and I have a much greater appreciation for how hard it is to rapidly switch the language in the public schools of Rwanda. I was amazed by these teachers' dedication and committment toward learning. We are so lucky that there are people in every population who identify their purpose in life to teach children. This group was no exception to my previous experiences that teachers are caring and thoughtful people deserving of our admiration.