Penalists at EdTech Monday
Technology, when wisely designed has potentials to accelerate, magnify, and spread the impact of good teaching practices.
The Edtech Monday program has been pushing technology in education, and has so far brought together three East African countries to support the invention of education tech solutions. The countries are Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, according to Grace Mbuyi, Communications Manager at Rwanda ICT Chamber.
“Recently, we evaluated the program, and it has positively impacted schools, learners, teachers and school management systems. The step to take now is discussing how we should build technology in our schools. The students have capabilities to invent different solutions, but we should establish conditions that favour them to be inventors,” Mbuyi said during KT Radio’s Edtech Monday program, on November 28.
“Today, Rwanda is not alone in the Edtech program, we have partnered with other countries; Kenya, and Uganda. Very soon we shall collaborate in implementation of some projects because they also have an Edtech program and they have some solutions to propose.”
She pointed out that there is great need for the innovators to meet and collaborate with schools, but also regulatory bodies to promote Edtech.
The EdTech Monday programme, which airs on KT Radio and KT Youtube on the last Monday of each month is sponsored by the MasterCard Foundation and the Rwanda ICT Chamber.
The last Edtech programme for 2023 was aired from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
This episode discussed crucial issues such as “Monitoring and Evaluation of Blended Learning Models” for assessing students, as well as teacher delivering in classrooms.
“In blended learning, we don’t only mind about the attendance of a student, we also see engagement and active participation. For example, a student can attend a Google meet, which shows his/her presence. It is built to identify who is late for class, but there is also a Learning Management System which has assignments, and shows students who did the assignment, what a student has read,” Arnaud Michel Nibaruta, Entrepreneurship Leadership Program Manager at African Leadership University said.
The Edtech programme follows the government’s efforts to be Africa’s premier ICT Hub by creating a conducive innovation ecosystem with competitive startups that provide high quality and high value ICT-products and services to the continent and worldwide markets.
The case to mention is the establishment of Norrsken tech hub in Kigali, which is bringing together over 200 entrepreneurs and innovators from across the continent.
The Norrsken ecosystem, which was founded in 2016, is a global non-profit dedicated to assisting entrepreneurs in addressing the world’s most pressing issues.
“Some curriculums are old, and some students are requesting schools to revise them, to match skills that are needed on the labour market. There is a mismatch between what is taught in schools and what is needed in labour markets,” Patrick Aimable Uwitonze, Founder&CEO of Karunga digital company said.
“The challenge now remains meeting schools, and Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) to show them that there is a need and it requires amendment. The authorities should help schools to amend curriculums. Most of the skills needed on the labour market are used internationally, not in Rwanda only,” Uwitonze noted.
