Educate!'s Role in Rwanda’s National Curriculum Reform

Juliet, an Educate! Youth Leader, is one of the people at the heart of Educate!’s partnership with the Rwandan government. She, along with ten other Youth Leaders, is helping to fulfill Educate!’s vision of integrating our model into national education systems.

Rwanda recently reformed its entire curriculum to be more skills-based and practical. After first partnering with the Rwandan government in 2015, Educate! now works to support Rwanda’s curriculum reform in two key ways, working with our key partner on the ground, Akazi Kanoze Access. First, we act as a technical advisor to Rwanda’s Ministry of Education, incorporating key elements of our proven model into the new entrepreneurship curriculum. Since the entrepreneurship subject is required, this reform reaches every secondary school student in Rwanda. Second, we supported with curriculum roll-out by designing the Educate! Exchange. The Educate! Exchange is a model to support educators in adopting and implementing the new skills-based entrepreneurship curriculum, so that changes in policy actually lead to changes in the classroom. We are proud to be working hand-in-hand with the Rwandan government to achieve their goal of empowering students with the skills they need to thrive after graduation and drive Rwanda’s economy.

Along with ten other Youth Leaders working across the country, Juliet is strategically placed in schools and expertly trained in learner-centered teaching methods, entrepreneurship and leadership, and monitoring and evaluation, enabling her to support teachers in taking up the new curriculum. The hands-on support from our Youth Leaders is one way we ensure quality curriculum delivery from teachers and true skill acquisition by students.  

We are closing our second year of running the Educate! Exchange in Rwanda and our impact evaluations and teacher feedback indicate promising results. “Of course, [my teaching] has changed,” says Tumukuratire Andrew, the entrepreneurship teacher at Gabiro High School, a school Juliet supports. “This time, we are teaching by doing. Previously, it was just as if you were lecturing, and now much emphasis is on putting into practice what you have taught.” Next year, Educate! is expanding to even more districts, maximizing the impact of the new curriculum for thousands more Rwandan youth.

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