Introduction
Changes in schools
This text book is part of the reform of the school curriculum in Rwanda: that is
changes in what is taught in schools and how it is taught. It is hoped this will
make what you learn in school useful to you when you leave school, whateveryou do then.
In the past, the main thing in schooling has been to learn knowledge – that is
facts and ideas about each subject. Now the main idea is that you should be
able to use the knowledge you learn by developing skills or competencies.
These skills or competencies include the ability to think for yourself, to be
able to communicate with others and explain what you have learnt, and to be
creative, that is developing your own ideas, not just following those of the
teacher and the text book. You should also be able to find out information and
ideas for yourself, rather than just relying on what the teacher or text booktells you.
Activity-based learning
This means that this book has a variety of activities for you to do, as well
as information for you to read. These activities present you with material or
things to do which will help you to learn things and find out things for yourself.
You already have a lot of knowledge and ideas based on the experiences you
have had and your life within your own community. Some of the activities,therefore, ask you to think about the knowledge and ideas you already have.
In using this book, therefore, it is essential that you do all the activities.
You will not learn properly unless you do these activities. They are the mostimportant part of the book.
In some ways this makes learning more of a challenge. It is more difficult to
think for yourself than to copy what the teacher tells you. But if you take up
this challenge you will become a better person and become more successfulin your life.
Group work
You can also learn a lot from other people in your class. If you have a problem
it can often be solved by discussing it with others. Many of the activities in the
book, therefore, involve discussion or other activities in groups or pairs. Your
teacher will help to organise these groups and may arrange the classroom so
you are always sitting in groups facing each other. You cannot discuss properlyunless you are facing each other.
Research
One of the objectives of the new curriculum is to help you find things out
for yourself. Some activities, therefore, ask you to do research using books
in the library, the internet if your school has this, or other sources such as
newspapers and magazines. This means you will develop the skills of learning
for yourself when you leave school. Your teacher will help you if your schooldoes not have a good library or internet.
Icons
To guide you, each activity in the book is marked by a symbol or icon to showyou what kind of activity it is. The icons are as follows:
