The 2009 Rwanda Joint Review of the Education Sector meeting was held from October 20th – 22nd 2009 in Kigali, Rwanda. The theme of the review was “Equity and quality of education”. This meeting was organised by the Ministry of Education and development partners. SNV, as a Joint Review of the Education Sector Taskforce member representing NGOs, took a key role in preparations together with the Ministry of Education, UK Department for International Development, UNICEF, World Bank and VVOB, a Flemish organisation. Over 200 participants representing various education stakeholders in Rwanda were present at the meeting.
Prior to the meeting, members undertook field visits in schools and colleges. The visits were reality checks on the impact of the nine year compulsory basic education and English as a medium of instruction reforms. These reforms have been under implementation since the start of 2009. SNV participated in the field visits in South and Eastern provinces. The resulting field visit report was prepared and presented to the Joint Review of the Education Sector by SNV, UNICEF and the Ministry of Education.
In addition, SNV and VVOB jointly prepared and presented a paper entitled “The community involvement in education”. This paper was hotly debated and led to some resolutions on the need for policy measures in support of community participation, Parent Teacher Associations and Multi-Stakeholder processes. For the first time SNV had an opportunity to make a presentation in the Joint Review of the Education Sector meeting and it was appreciated by participants. According to Cathy van Even of VVOB, “the landmark community involvement paper has become a reference point for many decisions within the Ministry of Education’’. The collaboration in the run up to the Joint Review of the Education Sector has set the background for partnership discussions between VVOB and SNV.
At the same review meeting, Richard Arden, representing DFID, announced the sector’s appreciation of SNV’s leadership role in coordinating other NGOs at the national level. DFID is the lead education donor in Rwanda.
.jpg)
Parents Teachers Association members of Groupe Scolaire Rubona School, showing off the girls’ toilet block built with community support. Picture by Russel Mushanga, SNV Rwanda