Remedial learning

It has been shown that the causes of vulnerability of children include poverty, divorce, intra-familial conflict, domestic abuse, parent/guardian in prison, physical, health issues including mental health problems which strongly contribute to children living in the streets, underperforming in school, dropping prematurely out of school and teenage pregnancies. Additionally, the education component statistics indicate that these vulnerability factors added to social norms mostly affect girls as it can be seen by the low literacy rate of females compared to men which are 69% and 77.5% respectively and the higher rate of dropout (6.1%) compared to males (5.4%). This explains the need to address social norms and target girls. Other factors of vulnerability include limited or no access to local social support services. Mainly, poverty has been identified as having a significant impact on children’s vulnerability and leading to a number of other child deprivations such as frequent school drop outs leading to students repeating classes several times and be much older than their counterparts.

Although 98 per cent of children are enrolled in primary school. Only 71 per cent of children complete their primary education. Classrooms are often too crowded, with an average of 62 students for every qualified teacher.

The quality of education requires significant attention. Primary students score too low in numeracy and literacy exams. Teachers are also unable to teach in English, the official language of instruction, and rely too heavily on traditional, teacher-centered instruction.

Although there are relatively equal numbers of boys and girls in classrooms, girls are more likely to drop out of school. Boys also outperform girls in 26 of Rwanda’s 30 districts. Girls are also significantly under-enrolled in technical, vocational and tertiary education.

Kura Umenye will provide vulnerable children with the required support to fulfil their potential through implementing a remedial learning education curriculum in 8 districts of Rwanda.

The remedial learning approach intends to increase the learning outcomes of vulnerable children who live in rural poverty and who are at risk of dropping out of primary school. It will be implemented in 120 schools in 8 districts and will allow primary school-age children to achieve required proficiency levels in reading, English and mathematics. The objective is to have children catch up in class, boost their class performance and be motivated to stay in school.