Early this month, Rwanda Education Board (REB) with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners started delivering lessons through radio and television. This was aimed at helping students who don’t have access to e-learning platforms amid the COVID-19 lockdown. Regarding this measure, a parent’s role has been highlighted as key in helping students learn better, and educationists say there are different ways to go about it. Keith Rutagengwa, a senior five student at Nu-Vision High School, applauds the government for the move, and adds that it has helped not only students but other people as well. “As students, we are able to establish a new environment where we don’t have time to waste since we need to keep the learning going on, and this has been achieved through TV and radio learning programmes,” he says. He says the learning procedures have been simplified, where topics are put in small bits for all students to understand. “This has helped learners rise above challenges, whereby new concepts require us to do extensive research on what we are being taught,” he adds. Rutagengwa says some of the things, however, tend to be explained differently from what their teachers taught them, and it also raises the inability to ask questions and get answers. The challenge so far, he says, is the inability to do more research due to poor or no internet connection. Christian Munyankindi, a senior six student, says the programmes are helpful although his only worry is how they are going to be assessed. He points out that learning without being assessed is of little benefit because as students, they want to know where they stand as far as understanding concepts is concerned. John Ruvugwa, a student at Ecole des Sciences Byimana, says what he finds boring is that most of the topics that are being discussed during these programmes had already been covered. However, he notes that its one way of doing revision. Experts weigh in Jane Nakaayi, the head of the department of languages at Riviera High School, is afraid that if parents don’t use this time to engage their children in constructive activities, it can have a negative impact on their academics after this COVID crisis. “It will be hard for learners to adjust when schools resume,” she says. To achieve this, the educator suggests that parents must be in contact with the teachers of their children. With this, she believes it’s easy to communicate in case there is a problem that a parent can’t solve as far as education is concerned. For all the e-learning, television and radio learning programmes to be effective, Nakaayi says parents should guide, monitor and evaluate their children’s work. For instance, she notes that if there is a TV or radio programme, parents should keep an eye on them while studying. For the younger ones, she says there is no option but to be there with the child for the entire period of time. Sylvain Bizirema, a science and chemistry teacher at Ecole des Sciences St Louis de Montfort in Nyanza District, is of the view that after every learning programme, parents should get feedback from children, by questioning them on what they learned. He says when it comes to learning programmes, they tend to give exercises, drills, and homework, and this is where a parent should come in to help them. However, Nakaayi says with such programmes, being in contact with the teacher is important, as a parent can consult them accordingly in case of a problem. “When students knows that their parents are concerned about their learning process, it motivates them to work hard,” she says. Alternatively, the parent should use this time to collect relevant material that can be used in learning, depending on the level of the student, Nakaayi says. Theoneste Ngiruwonsanga, a communication skills and disciplinary master in education at APPEC Remera Rukoma, a technical and vocational training school, says TV is a good way to teach because it is audio-visual. He says this makes learners attentive, therefore, easier for the parent to monitor their learning. However, he feels that the time duration on TV should be extended, to allow learners grasp more information broadly. Dr Irénée Ndayambaje, Director-General of REB, says with these programmes, parents should complement what teachers are giving their children, by knowing the schedule and the time certain programmes are aired. “This is to help them monitor if the children are ready to learn, the preparation can be done 20 minutes prior to the class programme to avoid last minutes rush,” he says. Ndayambaje notes that parents have to fulfil the role of teachers just like in a real class, where a teacher imparts and at the same time ensures whether learning has taken place. This can be practiced by accessing their children’s performance through questions and finding out more on what the child has learned from the programme. So how do parents ensure that learning has taken place effectively? Ndayambaje says parents should complement the child during the time of learning, so that whenever the teacher gives out an assignment, they are able to know and find a way of ensuring the exercised is done on time. This, he says, will help parents determine if there is something to work on. At this moment, educators say students should focus on exploiting positively the avenue that the internet and social media is providing for them. Nakaayi says students need to follow keenly the lessons and communicate with teachers through phone calls in case of any issue. Also, teaching young ones and learning from the older siblings is necessary. The teachers’ role Ndayambaje says this is not the time for teachers to relax; instead, it should help them refresh their knowledge. For instance, he says the new teacher’s statute which was gazetted last month includes compulsory profession development, therefore, being a teacher means being a lifelong learner. “As a teacher, they need to be professional, to build more knowledge, have free acquired attitude, competence and so forth,” he adds. In their usual daily work, teachers should resume the prepared time for the last two terms. Also, they can come up with questions to give students when schools open. Also, students should use this time to create a network between themselves to find out how far others have gone, and work on challenges, the REB director suggests.
