Katy on Rwanda TV
Katy talks about our work in Rwanda's primary schools with broadcast journalist Fiona Mbabazi.
If you can't make it to our classroom,
we bring the classroom to you.
The video below takes you into the classrooms of two of our government primary schools in Rwanda. Here you will see pupils in Primary 1, 2 and 3 learning English with their enthusiastic teachers. This is a tremendous accomplishment, illustrating the effectiveness of our NOEC books. No other English programme prepares the next generation for participation in the global economy better than this.
As with all charities, our greatest need is financial. If you would like to remember a favourite teacher or pupil by contributing to our work, PayPal Giving Fund will pass on 100% of your donation to us. There are no transaction fees when you choose this option. For other ways to give, click HERE. We are grateful for your enthusiasm and support.
Support to Primary Education (SPER) can change this story
Take a look at a typical school (below) NOT using our NOEC Books. This video was taken near the end of the 2019 school year. There are short clips from each of Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3 and Primary 4. In all classes there is very little participation or use of English by the pupils. In Primary 4, English is no longer just a subject but it is the medium of instruction for all lessons (in theory!). In the Primary 4 class filmed here, no pupil says a complete, correct sentence.
It's not the pupils' fault. It's not the teachers' fault. They have not been given the tools and training required to learn English with our NOEC books.
Production Notes on The Video Below
We added surtitles and subtitles to help explain what you’re seeing. Where you see ‘SPER,’ this refers to us. In Rwanda, our project is called Support to Primary Education Rwanda, or SPER for short. Education East Africa is SPER.
In the first half of the video we’re observing the class before introducing The New Original English Course (NOEC) This is how most primary school pupils are taught English in Africa. In the second half of the video, you will see the teachers and pupils using our NOEC books, with accompanying wall charts. Notice how much easier it is for everyone when there’s a real life connection with the words they are asked to learn. This is why we are desperate to get NOEC into every primary school in Rwanda.
Like all charities, our greatest need is financial. If you would like to remember a favourite teacher or pupil by contributing to our work, PayPal Giving Fund will pass on 100% of your donation to us. There are no transaction fees when you choose this option. For other ways to give, click HERE. We are grateful for your enthusiasm and support.
Our First Workshop in Rwanda
On Thursday 2nd November 2017 Education East Africa’s partner organization, Support to Primary Education Rwanda (SPER) hosted our first workshop for government and school officials. The workshop was opened by The Honourable Minister for Education. In his speech he praised our work and the use of our books, the New Original English Course (NOEC).
It was the first time an education workshop actually brought the classroom to the capital’s education officials who make the policies and write the curriculum. We brought 20 Primary 1 pupils (7 year olds) from Gasabo primary school, and 20 Primary 1 pupils from Gikomero primary school with their respective teachers Claude and Emima. They gave two mini-lessons as part of the workshop which demonstrated the pupils’ understanding of English including varied and difficult sentence structures. This illustrated what they have learned through NOEC and left no doubt with those in attendance as to the effectiveness of our teaching and learning materials.
In the 30-minute video below, Katy emphasizes the importance of mastering skills in the mother tongue before a second language is taught, and how the teachers can be supported by instructions and explanations in their mother tongue, when they are teaching English as a foreign language. Her presentation demonstrates how the charity’s tried and tested NOEC books are THE tool not only to improve learning by the pupils but also in the very important tasks of training and supporting primary teachers.
As with all charities, our greatest need is financial. If you would like to remember a favourite teacher or pupil by contributing to our work, PayPal Giving Fund will pass on 100% of your donation to us. There are no transaction fees when you choose this option. For other ways to give, click HERE. We are grateful for your enthusiasm and support.
We host a substantial library of videos with Vimeo. If you would like to see more, please follow this link to our Workshop Galleries.
As with all charities, our greatest need is financial. If you would like to remember a favourite teacher or pupil by contributing to our work, PayPal Giving Fund will pass on 100% of your donation to us. There are no transaction fees when you choose this option. For other ways to give, click HERE. We are grateful for your enthusiasm and support.