Ninety head teachers from Tanzanian primary schools, at the weekend, wound up their country tour aimed at learning from Rwanda’s education sector’s success stories. The teachers were from Kinondoni Municipality in Dar es Salaam. According to Hope John Gwimile, the head of the delegation, the tour was geared at helping the team learn from several of Rwanda’s best practices in the education sector. “Rwanda is one of the countries in the region that have made tremendous achievements in the recent past, not only in education but also in other sectors. These visible successes have been made within a short period of time in the aftermath of the Genocide. We want to know the kind of strategies they used with view to adopting them in Tanzania,” she said. “Tanzania and Rwanda share lots of education policies and challenges just like other east African countries; for instance, the universal education and other development goals, among others. We want to build our capacity and improve the quality of education not only in east Africa but also in Africa as a continent.” Gwimile said they also wished to learn how Rwanda implements information and communication technology (ICT) in primary schools, such as through the One Laptop Per Child project. During their three-day tour, the delegation met with officials from the Ministry of Education, toured different school activities, ministries and historical sites. Damien Ntaganzwa, the head of teacher development and management department at the Ministry of Education, said the group was briefed on different programmes shaping the country’s education. These included smart class rooms, Nine-Year Basic Education and 12-Year Basic Education, school management, among others. Ntaganzwa called for joint efforts to develop and promote quality education in the region.
