Unit 4: Continuous Professional Development

CPD is now mainstreaming in Rwandan education. The following policies explain needs and stipulate CPD in Rwanda.

1) Rwanda Vision 2020:

One of the pillars of Rwanda’s Vision 2020 is to have skilled people for the socio-economic development of the country. This pillar underlines the importance of education and training for producing knowledgeable citizens with skills and attitudes that would enable them to be entrepreneurs in their own learning, thinking and doing. In this perspective, improving the quality of education and training is one of the overarching goals of the Ministry of Education. Quality of education depends on many factors, but teachers and school leaders are the two most critical sets of actors in raising this quality. Therefore, priority is given to teacher development and management.

2) Education Sector Strategic Plan 2018/2019 – 2022/2023

Education Sector Strategic Plan is a mid-term plan which envisions goals of Rwandan education development in five years. This plan is structured around nine strategic priorities:

1. Enhanced quality of teaching and learning outcomes that are relevant to Rwanda’s social and economic development;
2. Strengthened continuous professional development and management of teachers across all levels of education in Rwanda;
3. Strengthened STEM across all levels of education in Rwanda to increase the relevance of education;
4. Enhanced use of ICT in teaching and learning to support the improvement of quality across all levels of education in Rwanda;
5. Increased access to education programmes especially at pre-primary, TVET and higher education levels in Rwanda;
6. Strengthened modern school infrastructure and facilities across all levels of education in Rwanda;
7. Equitable opportunities for all Rwandan children and young people at all levels of education;
8. More innovative and responsive research and development to community challenges; and
9. Strengthened governance and accountability across all levels of education in Rwanda.

Priorities 2 and 9 have a particular focus on CPD:

2. Strengthened continuous professional development and management of teachers across all levels of education in Rwanda. This priority plans to introduce a comprehensive cluster and school-based CPD for all categories of teachers. The new approach of CPD for teachers will focus on enhancing the professional competences of the teachers required for delivering the new competency-based curriculum. The new curriculum is based on an active, constructivist approach to learning. Therefore, the key components of the CPD for teachers will include a focus on early grade literacy and numeracy; active learning and practicing of continuous assessment. A sub-component of this strategic priority is also to improve teacher management practices. This includes the deployment, staffing norms, transfers, and retention and incentivization strategies (p40);

9. Strengthened governance and accountability across all levels of education in Rwanda. This priority stipulates that head teachers will be trained and supported in school leadership to equip them with sufficient skills so that they can provide CPD to their teaching staff and plan for school improvement and development. Head teachers also need to be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their teachers and provide support and advice on pedagogy, subject matter, inclusion and other cross-cutting issues. Therefore, districts will need to prioritize the oversight of schools to foster a continuous ethos of improvement in learning outcomes across all schools. This will include the school-based CPD of teachers through the establishment of district CPD committees. It is expected that stakeholders at all levels will be empowered to take responsibility for accountability, including community involvement in monitoring (p.56-57).

This is the end of Lesson 1.