Bridging the Atlantic: Boston Residents Offer English and Computer Classes for Rwandan Teachers in Midst of the Pandemic
Every Sunday afternoon, the teachers of the Nyabirehe Primary School, located in the Musanze District of Rwanda, return to school for their online English conversation class. Gathered in the teachers' office, they huddle together at long tables and turn towards the projector screen, awaiting the day's lesson on Zoom. Once Zoom is up and running, Leslie Belay arrives on screen to lead the class from across the world in Boston, Massachusetts.
Belay, an independent consultant in Non-Profit and Grants Management on the Move Up Global Board of Directors, has volunteered her time to run these English conversation classes.
"It really wasn't our plan to offer English conversation class for the primary school teachers in Rwanda," Belay begins, "but it was our plan to bring electricity to the school, to donate computers and get them linked up to the Internet and to provide some training on how to use those computers and how to use the Internet. As a result of that, it became clear right away that they would benefit from English instruction at a conversational level."
What started out as online training sessions for the teachers on the basics of computer and Internet usage, the English conversation classes grew out of the teachers' need not only to learn proficient English for themselves; they are required to teach their students in English as well. In 2008, the Rwandan government decided to switch the language of their education instruction over to English. All content subjects, including science, social studies, and mathematics, must be taught entirely in English —a language that remains hard to many teachers who grew up speaking and learning in Kinyarwanda and French. Belay noted this lack of English-teaching resources and began offering weekly Zoom English conversation classes after the teachers' technology training sessions.
A typical English conversation class for the teachers consists of familiar, vocabulary-rich topics that the teachers and Belay can discuss, such as transportation or the differences in food or animal species in America and Rwanda. Once the teachers became more comfortable with English and with Zoom, Belay began to shift the focus of the classes: "Once we got people comfortable, they understood the technology, and they weren't intimidated to speak in English even though it's not their language, we started in with, how can you be a teacher of English in your classrooms? Some of them are English teachers. Some of them are science or math teachers, but they're supposed to teach in English and there are certain teaching methodologies that would be useful."
Belay began this transition into an English teaching methods class by using the popular children's game Simon Says, which, as she mentioned, was a "big success." Simon Says then segued into a conversation about kinetic learning, the importance of movement in the elementary classroom, and an introduction to new English vocabulary for body parts. More recent classes have followed this teaching-methods model; one of the classes was dedicated solely to discussing how the teachers could utilize different books in their classrooms. Additionally, the Rwandan teachers have requested that American teachers visit the class for discussions on their teaching methodologies and practices.
As the English conversation classes are already evolving into English teaching methodology classes, Belay has high hopes for the future: "Now I'm seeing that maybe we can recruit other people beside myself, teachers or student-teachers who might like to take over some of these classes from the American side and these classes can evolve…. other people can lead it and redefine it according to what's interesting to the Rwandan teachers and what they need. And as we improve the technology, you know, all things are possible. We could offer other classes to see if other people are willing to come back because right now we only have a small group of teachers. There are other teachers who are not participating and they're waiting their turn to get in this program."
With a high demand for more classes, Belay turns to Move Up Global supporters. "We're a young, start-up organization, so we need everything. We need volunteers. We need technology. We need money. We need all kinds of things, so anybody who wants to support us probably could find a way to do it. We're just getting started and we have different committees and we're developing ideas. We have not even implemented a lot of things yet. Everything that we do, we try to make sure that its led by our Rwandan partners and that we're being good listeners on this end and that we're trying to respond to them."
With the future of the classes looking bright, the teachers of the Nyabirehe school continue to learn so they can improve their students' quality of education. As Move Up Global continues to grow as well, the need for resources, funds, and increased support is paramount to the class's continued success. In order to actualize Move Up Global's vision of a quality education for these students, these classes must continue and evolve to help the Nyabirehe teachers in all aspects of their teaching. Move Up Global is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that strives to promote equitable access to better health and education for greater social impact.
By Rebecca L. Peakes, Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York.