The Power and Potential of a Real-world Reform
Co-Creating Impactful Learning Experiences with the Rwandan Government
To succeed in a fast-paced world, young people need focus, innovative skills, and creativity. Not only do these assets enable youth to excel in school, but beyond. Over the last seven years, Educate! has worked closely with the Rwandan government to reform an innovative secondary school subject that balances both academic and real-world skills, and it’s now driving measurable impact on youth lives!
We recently had the pleasure of connecting with State Minister of Education of Rwanda, Honorable Mr. Gaspard Twagirayezu, and reflected on our partnership thus far. He recognized the power of entrepreneurship as well as Educate!’s efforts to support teachers to create hands-on lessons, which empower students to build the 21st-century skills that will enable them to succeed outside of the classroom.
“Working with Educate! has been significant because students have developed an entrepreneurial mindset. Students can now think beyond their notebooks, which is a win for both the education system and Educate!.”
Through the reform and rollout of Rwanda’s Entrepreneurship curriculum and accompanying teacher training model, young people are now building problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, and leadership skills in the classroom. By focusing on these competencies, the education system seeks to prepare generations of youth for leadership and work in any context.
To date, Educate!’s teacher training model has reached educators in 40% of schools in Rwanda. The government is a key partner in supporting the scale of this work so that all secondary schools facilitate a practical, real-world approach to skill building.
Excitingly, evidence has shown the partnership between Rwanda’s government and Educate! is already creating an impact. Results from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) found that the curriculum reform, accompanied by teacher training, leads to measurable impacts in youth outcomes, such as key transferable skills, educational attainment, and business ownership.
Educate!’s long-term goal is to have this impactful learning experience fully adopted by the education system. According to the State Minister of Education, scaling can only come into fruition if the system builds upon what Educate! has been doing. Once teachers fully adopt the reform’s new hands-on curriculum and student-centered pedagogy, educators from other schools can visit to see it in action and more easily replicate the new techniques in their own classrooms.
An Entrepreneurship student presents her Business Club products to Honorable Mr. Gaspard Twagirayez and Educate! Rwanda Country Director Kamanda Kamiri during a National Student Business Club Competition
Collectively, these efforts support the government to deliver an education that responds to the needs of today’s economy, and it’s an approach built to be adopted and adapted by other nations.
“Every school system in Africa is different. What we have been able to achieve with Educate! is as a result of how we operate and develop a curriculum that responds to the needs that we have.”
As we have seen in Rwanda, partnering to reform a single subject has the power to create measurable change in the lives of youth and does so faster and at a lower cost than a more comprehensive multi-subject secondary school reform.
In the next few years, we hope to have trained teachers within 100% of secondary schools in Rwanda while we continue to follow the same collaborative approach to secondary education quality improvement in Kenya.
