On Thursday 31^st October 2024 at Crown Conference Hall-Nyarutarama USAID Tunoze Gusoma Project in partnership with Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) and other key stakeholders assembled its annual Pause to Reflect and Learning event.

The theme of this year’s event was “Sustaining Emergent and Early Literacy Gains: Progress Made, Lessons, and Next Steps” which is in accordance with emphasizing high-quality, inclusive, and foundational literacy instruction, preparing students for sustained learning.

More than 90 representatives from central and decentralized education sectors to local government education officials such as Vice Mayors in charge of Social Affairs, District Education Officials and Sector Education Inspectors development partners school leaders that include parent representatives from School Executive Committee and teacher representatives were in attendance.

As the Guest of Honor who represented the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Director General of Rwanda Basic Education Board, Dr MBARUSHIMANA Nelson reminded attendees that “the work we do here today will directly impact the quality of education we provide for the young generation of today and tomorrow.” DG REB, Dr. Nelson said.

“We are here to evaluate Tunoze Gusoma’s progress, examine lessons we have learnt, and plan the path forward for sustaining the early literacy gains we have worked so hard to achieve to date.” He added.

Dr Nelson also hinted on some of the milestones that have been achieved in the past three years such as monitoring and evaluation data which has been collected by USAID Tunoze Gusoma in collaboration with REB.

DG REB was also precise when it came to highlight what had made all participants attend this event;“We are here to establish time-bound actions that will ensure children to receive quality education that fosters foundational literacy.” He said.

During the event, stakeholders reviewed data collected whereby the findings from these activities will guide discussions on the status of literacy efforts, the effectiveness of instructional strategies, and how to address any challenges or gaps observed.

Mr. Aliou Tall, Education Director at USAID indicated that USAID Tunoze Gusoma project is designed with one goal which is to make sure that all children in pre-primary and lower-primary classrooms have access to higher quality increased learning environment.

“This is a wonderful occasion for us to reflect on previous implementations of this year’s theme.” Mr Aliou said. “Quality education plays a big role in achieving knowledge-based economy.” He continued.

During the event, USAID Tunoze Gusoma was also highlighted as a project that takes part in prioritizing gender, disability inclusion, social and emotional learning (SEL). Mr. Protogene Ndahayo, Chief of Party at USAID Tunoze Gusoma helped in showcasing that activity.

“As you can see, we are celebrating the progress shown by data while we also sustain what has been achieved.” Mr. Ndahayo said.

USAID Tunoze Gusoma (Schools and Systems) project is a Five-Year program designed to strengthen the education system to enable all pre-primary and lower primary school and classroom environments to be of high quality, inclusive, and focused on learning of foundational reading skills.

The project has developed an annual event known as Pause to Reflect to Learn aimed at creating a dedicated space for USAID Tunoze Gusoma key stakeholders to reflect on its progress, share insights and best practices, identify challenges and plan for future actions towards sustainability of its achievements.

The event of this year reflected on the 2023-24 academic year implementation and data-driven decisions that impact Kinyarwanda literacy for pre-primary and lower primary learners.