When the Secondary Teachers English Language Improvement Rwanda (STELIR) project closed its doors on May 26, 2026, the mood at the ceremony was not the sigh of an ending but something closer to a graduation; a celebration of work completed, with a clear-eyed sense that the next chapter belongs to Rwanda.

For four years, STELIR has worked inside the country’s classrooms, staff rooms and teacher training colleges. Delivered by the British Council in partnership with Mastercard Foundation and the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), it set out to do something deceptively simple: help lower secondary school teachers feel at home in the language they are asked to teach in.

The results, announced at the close-out event, exceeded what anyone had originally promised. More than 10,000 educators, 10,368 in total, have now reached at least an intermediate CEFR B1 level of English. The original target of 7,000 has been left some distance behind.

A national effort, by Rwandans, for Rwandans

Among those 10,368 teachers, more than 6,500 are in-service lower secondary teachers working across 14 districts. A further 2,300 are pre-service teachers studying at the University of Rwanda College of Education (URCE), the country’s main pipeline for new educators.

The reach extended into the corners of the country that programmes often miss. Seventy-six per cent of participants came from rural areas; 36 per cent were women; 59 per cent were young people; and 5 per cent self-identified as having a disability.

Crucially, the people doing the teaching were Rwandan from the start.

"We did not bring in foreign trainers,” said Sarah Paterson, project team leader at the British Council. "We worked with Rwandan teachers, tutors and university lecturers, and provided them with additional training to deliver the courses.”

That choice, made early, is one of the reasons the project’s ending feels less like a departure than a handover.

Why it was needed

The need was not theoretical. Assessments by the National Examination and School Inspection Authority (NESA) had shown that only 47 per cent of Senior Three learners were meeting the expected English proficiency level. Among girls the figure was 40 per cent; among boys, 51 per cent. The Education Sector Strategic Plan had pointed to a key cause: in 2018, only 4 per cent of primary school teachers and 38 per cent of secondary school teachers met minimum English proficiency standards.

Rwanda’s switch from French to English as the language of instruction had left many teachers carrying a certain anxiety into their own classrooms. STELIR was designed to alleviate that.

By the close of the project, the figures looked very different. Around 92 per cent of in-service teachers and 97 per cent of pre-service teachers had reached B1 or above. Classroom observations told a complementary story: learners in STELIR-trained classrooms were more willing to speak and used more English than their peers in comparison classrooms.

"We have observed classrooms,” Paterson said, "and found that teachers who participated in the training are teaching more effectively. Their students are also more willing to speak and are using more English during lessons. The project has had a positive impact on both teachers and learners.”

Sustainability designed in, not bolted on

For Ruth Mukakimenyi, Programme Partner at the Mastercard Foundation, the project’s success rested on a single principle. "Strong local ownership creates long-term change and strengthens the resilience of the education system,” she said. "Sustainability comes from empowering local educators and institutions rather than relying on external actors.”

That principle is now stitched into Rwanda’s education system in concrete ways. STELIR leaves behind 179 in-service trainers and 25 pre-service trainers capable of delivering blended learning courses long after the project’s logo is taken down.

A further 1,013 school-based mentors and CPD coordinators have been trained to support their colleagues. Teaching materials are owned by REB; training content sits on REB’s own e-learning platform; the digital and pedagogical infrastructure stays where it is needed.

At URCE, the institutional ripple is already visible. "For sustainability purposes, we were included in the project implementation,” said Principal Professor Florien Nsanganwimana. "We train teachers through pre-service education. Participating in this programme was very important to ensure that we do not continue supplying teachers with gaps in English proficiency.”

The college has strengthened its own English programme, retrained its lecturers, and is establishing a centre for continuous professional development to carry the work forward.

A long relationship, a steady commitment

For the British Council, the project caps more than 15 years of support for Rwanda’s transition to English-medium education. Country Director Rebecca Picton said STELIR had been designed from the outset to respond to Rwanda’s needs while ensuring sustainability through local systems and expertise.

Dr Flora Mutezigaju, Deputy Director General of REB, framed the closure as anything but final. "For us, this is not just a closing event. It is a celebration of partnership, collaboration, commitment and the transformation of Rwanda’s education sector,” she said.

She added that REB is committed to sustaining the programme’s gains beyond its closure: "We understood that strengthening teachers’ confidence and improving their English proficiency was essential to improving learning outcomes and giving our young people opportunities to compete in the global market.”

The legacy

There is something bittersweet about the end of a project that has worked well. The convoys of trainers will no longer make their way to Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) across the country. The monthly partnership meetings will end. The badges will come off.

But STELIR's real legacy was never the project itself; it was the people: a teacher in a rural school speaking English with new confidence; a lecturer in Kigali equipped to mentor the next generation; a young woman entering her first classroom no longer doubting her place at the front of it.

For the British Council, that is the moment to step back. "It has been a privilege to support this work, but the real credit belongs to Rwanda's teachers, to REB and to the College of Education," said Picton. "We are delighted to be handing it over knowing it is in the best possible hands. REB will carry it further than we ever could; that was always the point. These are not endings. They are beginnings, multiplied by ten thousand."