Yesterday on 31^st January 2024, Director General of Rwanda Basic Education Board Dr. Nelson Mbarushimana chaired the meeting with Publishers and writers from across the country at REB training center with theme “The role of Writers and Publishers in the promotion of quality of Education”.

In his welcoming remarks, DG REB thanks the exceptional efforts that writers and publishers use to produce books that are complementing National curriculum.

“REB works with both writers and publishers to find supplementary materials that support the developed primary instructional materials. For these supplementary materials to be of high quality, REB has established book writing guidelines to be followed while writing educational materials to be used in Rwandan schools. DG REB said

Director General of Rwanda Basic Education Board said that writers and publishers mark patriotism through supporting Pre-primary, Primary, Secondary and specialized schools by providing books of which the content turn around unity and patriotism that lead the learners to wellbeing and fruitful future we want.

DG REB encouraged writers to write and publish Rwandan history books especially highlighting the 1994 Genocide perpetrated against TUTSI in order to help young generation to know better and more about it. This will help the country to have united citizens from early age by building unity in them where whoever brings division among Rwandans will fail.

Writers and publishers play a pivotal role in producing supplementary materials that support the effective implementation of the national curriculum by enriching the educational experience for students. They produce learning and teaching materials that are aligned to the national curriculum for different levels of education. These usually include a textbook, with its accompanying teacher’s guide, which are available mostly in printed format but are increasingly also published in digital formats.

Educational writers and publishers also encompass a range of other materials that are required to support the curriculum, such as reading schemes, literature, dictionaries, atlases and wall charts. Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) as a government institution in charge of basic education recognizes their important role in supporting the Rwandan education system. Dr. Nelson added that REB is committed to working closely with writers and publishers in order to maintain high quality of supplementary materials they produce based on the national curriculum requirements.

Head of curriculum department Madam Murungi Joan asked writers to publish books that are in the Rwandan culture context rather than copy the culture from elsewhere and paste it in Rwadan contents. ’Whichever book you are writing, Rwandan values should be considered and it is our mandate to check if you have maximized it before we approve it. She said

”It is of great to work together and complete each other for wellbeing of Rwandans and we always want to build the country that will live good health in future through quality of education we offer to them today. “ HOD Joan added

HOD Joan argues that Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) expects writers, publishing houses, authors and development partners to effectively produce (adapt) high quality, attractive, age-appropriate, gender-transformative, and inclusive lower primary leveled texts in English and Kinyarwanda as well as Kinyarwanda read-aloud stories for pre-primary.  It is also expected that it will have a greater contribution in behavior change around gender equality, disability, inclusion, environment/climate change, positive, playful and inclusive parenting, child protection, STEAM, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and many more others.

HOD Murungi shared with writers and publishers what to consider at their daily work and says that the leveling system for both English and Kinyarwanda readers always considers the same seven criteria as such as content, vocabulary, Patterns in text, Illustrations, Print features, Readability.

Content is the complexity of the concepts or ideas presented. Beginning read aloud merely label illustrations of objects or actions that are familiar to the reader or use repetitive vocabulary and structures to describe events or experiences common to most young readers, such as events at school. In Nursery II, the stories become less predictable as more characters are introduced and the reader needs to make inferences to follow the storyline. Texts at this level have a strong plot, individualized characters, descriptive language, and literary text structures such as “Once upon a time …” or “There once was…” Vocabulary is the nature of the words used, how familiar they are to young readers, the extent to which they are phonetically regular and thus easily decodable   or are high-frequency sight words that learners know and recognize. Patterns or predictability refers to the presence of rhyme or rhythm patterns, or patterns created by repeating vocabulary, or sentence structures, or by the presence of cumulative or chronological text structures that make a text predictable.

Predictability is an important characteristic of read-aloud texts. The presence of repetitive structures and vocabulary aids comprehension and enhances learners’ pleasure of reading. The support provided by illustrations can make a read-aloud story easier or harder to understand. In Nursery I, illustrations often take up most of the page. They are simple and clear, with no unnecessary details, and match what is in the text. They provide a high level of support for understanding the text. Print features generally refer to the size and layout of text and illustrations. At beginning levels, the print generally appears in a very large font (24 point) and clear font that matches the print used in textbooks or by teachers on a black board (e.g., Andika).

As readers move up the levels, the font gradually becomes smaller.  Readability refers to traditional quantifiable criteria used to determine the level of difficulty of a text, for example, the average number of words in a sentence, the average number of sentences on a page, the average number of syllables in a word, the total number of words or sentences in a text.

Writers committed themselves to produce supplementary materials that play a crucial role in promoting a more inclusive, engaging and effective learning environment by addressing diverse learning needs and providing additional support to the primary instructional materials.

Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) is a Government institution established in 2020 by the presidential order No: 122/01 of 15/10/2020 published in Official Gazette No 32 bis of 19/10/2020. It was established under the Ministry of Education to promote the quality of education in basic, specialized and adult schools. One of its main responsibilities is to prepare and distribute curricula, teaching materials, teacher’s guides, methodologies and establish teaching methods for nursery, primary, secondary, specialized schools and adult literacy schools.