On 14 May 2021 at Ministry of Education, Hon. Minister of State in charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Gaspard TWAGIRAYEZU, Director General of Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), Dr. Nelson MBARUSHIMANA, and Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Rwanda office, Mr. MARUO Shin signed the Record of Discussions (R/D) (a technical cooperation agreement) that will enable the launch of the project named “Project to strengthen Primary School Mathematics with the use of ICT”.

The purpose of the project is to strengthen capacities of Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) and their Demonstration School9DSs) for improving teaching & learning mathematics and science with the enhanced use of ICT. Through the project, teaching, learning,　and assessment of primary school mathematics and science subjects will be digitalized at TTCS.

During the signing ceremony, Hon. Minister of State in charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Gaspard TWAGIRAYEZU said: ”Mathematics is the foundation of all subjects, therefore I believe that our students will benefit a lot from this project, and I also recommend that this project should start as soon as possible.”

Director General of Rwanda Basic Education (REB), Dr. Nelson MBARUSHIMANA hopes that the project will be fully implemented well based the previous good cooperation between REB and JICA.

For nearly a decade, JICA has provided support for basic education in Rwanda. In 2012-2016, JICA in collaboration with REB, has implemented “the Project for strengthening School Based Collaboration Teacher Training (SBCT)”, to empower teachers in lower secondary school through School Based In-Service Training (SBI). In 2017-2019, the agency has also conducted “the Project for Supporting Institutionalizing and Improving Quality of SBI (SIIQS)”, to realize the institutionalization of Continuous Professional Development Committees, raising teacher’s awareness about Competence Based Curriculum.

The new project will specifically contribute to the improvement of basic mathematics and science competencies, which are effective to solve a range of problems faced by pupils at primary school level. This will also benefit Rwanda’s ICT human resource development, to become a significant contribution to the national development in the future.

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