Dr Anita Stangl is the CEO of Medien LB and a well trained school teacher with a doctorate degree in Biology didactics (Dr. rer. nat). 

In July, a team from Medien LB visited several schools in the country and are currently working with the Ministry of Education, the Work Force Development Authority (WDA), and Rwanda Education Board (REB) to produce education films and other digital versions of the new curriculum that is set to be rolled out in schools next year.If all goes well, a pilot project of the digital curriculum is imminent in this month.

The New Times’ Solomon Asaba caught up with Dr Anita for an exclusive interview:

Below are the excerpts:

How exactly will this project impact the life of students and teachers in the country?

Educational materials, especially audiovisual materials in different subjects for primary and secondary schools have been associated with enhanced learning among students. This also puts into considerations, the package which teachers have to choose from when explaining concepts, for example our package combines sheets, film clips in all subjects, and other interactive materials. When texts, graphics, and animations are put together, a teacher is able to access a full package of multimedia suitable to the age of the students. During a lesson, he or she can decide to go for a certain clip or short film depending on the subject.

We are working with some Rwandan students from Germany who are part of the learning team. At some point they thought of what they can do for education in this country so they decided that it is better to create something that can improve education. We all believe that learning with audiovisual material is the perfect way of learning. When you see something with sound and animation you can much better recognise and memorise it.

Implementation of the new curriculum starts next year. How will this project meet the competence requirements?

There is a big chance because there is change of the curricular for all subjects. The curricular is really great, I know a lot of curricular around the world so I can say that this is a perfect one. We are looking for a team of teachers, Rwandan teachers, IT specialists, curricular specialists, to put the perfect content to the curricular now. The materials are matched perfect to serve this purpose, now that it is basically written, the next step is to feed this content into the curricular.

I suppose that these audiovisual materials are aiming at simplifying certain areas of education, which ones? They are about all subjects such as photosynthesis, biodiversity, automoto technology, among others, different subjects, if I may say, mostly technical areas.

In Germany, we produce for all levels but here we are looking first to suit both primary and secondary (education). On the other hand, we are looking at embedding this material in the curricular for polytechnic schools and TVET centres.

Currently, most students are covered under the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ programmes although the government has a plan to switch to the ‘Smart Classrooms’, do you think this content will be compatible with the already distributed laptops?

We visited primary schools over the last days with the laptops and we are convinced that this content will be much more intensive. We shall try to check compatibility for the one laptop and the ordinary laptops. Either way, the content can be modified to suit this purpose so that students achieve their expectations.

Are you also convinced that this kind of content will come in handy with this kind of ICT transition?

I think this content will help teachers achieve something in a better way, for example, animations like how the heart beats, how blood flows. If the teachers here get access to such materials they can do a better job and they get help for their lessons so they spend more time for the lessons than previously when they used to spend more time for the lessons instead of searching for the material.

Who are your partners and when do you think the project will start?

We discussed with the Ministry of Education and we decided to make a pilot project, we want to be done with the project by April next year and hope to start it this month, that is if we come to an agreement. We must check and today we have to decide which curricular are the first to match with the material.

You have been here for days and moved around. The government plans to beef up ICT in education, how do you perceive the current situation and infrastructure?

I am really impressed with the infrastructure, even in the streets themselves. Not that I have visited very good schools but these are well organised and small children in primary schools are learning and using ICT, German schools can look to Rwanda now because there is a lot to learn.

A lot of projects have been going on between Rwanda and Germany and recently, the minister for Technical, and Vocational Educational Training (TVET) and other officials from Rwanda visited the Chamber of Skilled Crafts in Koblenz (in Germany) with the aim of learning something towards our transition to a bigger TVET proportion in education, how do you see this partnership?

Mostly I see that we produce content and for a lot of years but more so we are exchanging both content and skills. Our curricular have been approved by several institutions and now we have two curricular that are very similar, one is for TVET and the other in the general education. This is just in line with what Rwanda wants to achieve.

When do you think the project will be ready for implementation and don’t you think our teachers need more empowerment?

We have a big conference here around May and we want to showcase what we are doing which means that around that time we shall be where we want to be.

Teachers have to learn, we shall train most of them but, even within the digital materials, there is a section for the teachers on how to use IT in schools. May be it is the most important part of the project but, still, they can achieve it but as one part explains to the students, the other part of the movies explains to the teachers how they can use it in schools.

This century is one of science, research and technology, if I were a student what do I need to have and what other options are available besides science?

Most of the content we want to introduce is for science but it does not mean it is all we got. We also have content for literature, history, geography, among others.

Although the first experience will be mostly for teachers, there is no need for internet, all you may need is a memory stick.

This time is mostly for teachers and you don’t really need internet, all that a teacher needs is a memory stick. No internet because right now not all the schools are connected.

What other opportunities do you see in the IT sector here?

Just like I said the work is there, the curricular is good but just need to change the methods, new models are now necessary, beside the old models are now costly. There are about 100 Rwandan students at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern (Germany) and are working with us to improve this project. They are also behind the search to improve the quality of the education system here.

How many ideas do you have to incorporate in this project, isn’t the equipment expensive anyway?

We have quite a number of ideas, we have been to Olleh Rwanda, which is an internet service provider. We have information from them that their plan of three years will be covered with internet in 3000 schools. If you have that number of schools connected to the internet, this is an opportunity and now we can provide materials online so that every teacher can download them. That is the first way, another possible way is through using removable media.

Which schools do you think are working well currently and can easily accommodate the project?

Some schools are more equipped than others like Lycee de Kigali seems to be well equipped with a projector room, also SOS technical school which had a number of equipment, Kigali Parents School looked equipped as well. In general, the project can be well equipped even with one school and one computer it is possible.

Don’t you think it may be quite challenging to implement at this point?

We thought about the cost, that is why we thought about training the local people. That is our aim so that the project may be sustainable. I can tell you we are ready, we have a strong team and we are pushing for it.

Have you seen the materials in TVET centres and did they match your expectations?

We were talking with some technical schools and we have seen some modern materials that we can use. This, of course, brings us back to making the cost cheaper.

There is a plan to manufacture computers, which fits exactly in your arrangements. How do you feel about this move?

I know already that the production is already on going. That is good news for us because in two or three years every teacher will have their own computer and ipad. So whether online or offline, they will be able to access the material since the government is willing to provide this necessary infrastructure.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw