Rwanda

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USAID and the Government of Rwanda are increasingly interested in investing in the early childhood years. Together for Early Childhood Evidence offers early childhood education stakeholders an opportunity to come together to discuss data and measurement issues in the sub-sector.

The Rwanda country team has been meeting since 2019 to discuss data and measurement issues in Rwanda. Their work has focused on mapping available data on young children in Rwanda, including the quality of pre-primary programs, child development and learning outcomes, health and nutrition, and current efforts to use ECD-related data in Rwanda.

In 2021, Together for Early Childhood Evidence launched a research project with Save the Children Rwanda, building off Save the Children’s existing work by implementing the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) to study student learning outcomes nationwide. Together for Early Childhood Evidence project funds supported the addition of the IDELA Classroom Environment Tool, which evaluates classroom resources, literacy and numeracy instruction, and teacher-student interactions. The project also built the capacity of government officials to collect and use data on preprimary quality. Learn more about the 2021/2022 T4ECE Rwanda project.

Building on the national IDELA study, the Ministry of Education, members of the Rwanda T4ECE task force team, and other partners have defined country-level benchmarks for child learning based on IDELA scores. The benchmarks will allow decision-makers in Rwanda to understand the proportion of children who are classified as “minimally on track.” Now that benchmarks have been created, the Rwanda T4ECE task force team has identified the need to test them further to be able to generalize the benchmarks to the Rwandan population.

In 2024, the CATALYZE T4ECE research project will support a nationally representative assessment with IDELA to pilot these benchmarks. The study will determine the emergent numeracy, literacy, socio-emotional, fine, and gross motor skills for children completing pre-primary school, including the proportion identified as ‘minimally on track,’ and determine which classroom quality factors correlate with children’s school readiness. This project will also build the capacity of government officials from the Ministry of Education, the Rwanda Education Board, and the National Examination and School Inspection Authority (NESA), who will use IDELA as a national early childhood measurement tool. Capacity building will support government officials in linking IDELA to existing government data systems and processes. For more information, please read Building a national early childhood measurement system in Rwanda.

To learn more, please read about Together for Early Childhood Evidence in Rwanda (PDF)

Image of young children in Rwanda sitting around 4 tables in a classroom.

Additional Information

The Rwanda country team was established in 2019, and is co-chaired by the Ministry of Education and USAID Rwanda.

Key Indicators from Rwanda

Poverty headcount ratio at $2.15 a day (2017 PPP) (% of population)   52%
GDP per capita (current US$) $822
School enrollment, preprimary (% gross) 28%
Prevalence of stunting, height for age (% of children under 5) 33%
Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births) 39 

Data from the World Bank 

Image of young children in a classroom playing with blocks and making arts and crafts.

Country Team Members

 Name Title Organization
 Aliou Tall Education Director USAID Rwanda
 Theoneste Niyonzima  Education Specialist USAID Rwanda 
 Jean Paul Nyandwi ECD Specialist National Early Childhood Development Program 
 Alphonse Uworwabayeho Senior Lecturer University of Rwanda
 Firmin Dusengumuremyi ECE Officer UNICEF Rwanda
 Egidia Umutesi Education Technical Program Manager World Vision
 Paulin Ndahayo Education Program Manager Save the Children 
 Noella Kabarungi Senior Education Technical Specialist Save the Children 

 

Young children in Rwanda making arts and crafts in a classroom.

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This website is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the Office of Education, Bureau for Africa, U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of contract No. 7200AA19C00080, subcontract CATALYZE-Edu-CR-2023-0352. The contents of this website are developed by the ECD Measure group hosted at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.