At least 2.6 million students of lower primary grades will benefit from Building Learning Foundations (BLF) project that will distribute study kits to all public and private schools in the next three years.

For three years, the programme will reach out to 12,500 English and Mathematics teachers and 2,500 head teachers across the country The project, which will train teacher to improve their English teaching skills, comes at a time when teachers are facing challenges of passing on these skills to pupils in primary one, two and three.

A number of teachers have been taken through orientation and guided self-study resources to support their work.

Edward Nizeyimana, head teacher of Group Scoler Nduba Primary and Secondary School in Gasabo District, said although the programme aims at improving the outcomes in lower primary, teachers still need advanced trainings to upgrade their knowledge and English language skills. This will help them to transcribe the study kits to students easily while teaching.

“The government should consider retraining more teachers in this programme because currently, we have fewer trained teachers to teach in lower primary yet the number of pupils is overwhelming,” he said.

“Though we still have a long way to go to ensure that students benefit from the offer, the Ministry of Education deserves appreciation for all the efforts aimed at improved education standards not only in lower primary but also in higher learning institutions,” said Mr Nizeyimana.

The State Minister for Primary and secondary Education Isaac Munyakazi told the teachers at the national launch of the distribution of study kits that the government’s target is to see visible improvements in education and that this can only be attained if teachers are determined and cooperative. “After training and distribution of study kits to schools across the country, teachers will have no more excuses,” he said. He urged head teachers to work with Parents Teachers Association to ensure good involvement of parents in education matters.

“The programme will also help children to read, write and interpret letters, sound and sentences properly using these study kits. We need to see change and retention rate in lower primary should be quite good,” added Mr Munyakazi said.

However, he blamed negligence to students among teachers in lower classes, which he said contributes to their poor performance in primary examinations.

“The government will do whatever it takes to ensure improved quality of education and there will be no tolerance to any teacher who will go contrary to yielding quality outcomes,” he noted.

Head teachers told Rwanda Today that they still face the challenges of shortage of enough classrooms in the lower primary, especially in primary two, where five students sit on one desk meant to accommodate only three students.

Mr Nizeyimana said in primary two there are over 100 students who are supposed to be taught by one teacher, forcing teachers to squeeze students so they can fit in a classroom.

“The government should think about constructing more classrooms to accommodate the increasing number of pupils,” Another head teacher said the government should also help to extend the programme to upper classes.

“This would help children to not only understand lessons but also read and pronounce sounds and letters fluently.

And also help to improve the reading culture of our pupils,” He said. He observed that there’re students in primary five and six who can’t express  themselves or read a full sentence without making mistakes in pronouncing with others failing completely to read some words.