USAID-Soma Umenye, REB celebrate the achievements in Education Development

Elias Hakizimana Nov 19, 2021 0 Comments

By Alexia Bizumuremyi.

USAID-Soma Umenye in partnership with The Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) through Rwanda Education Board (REB) celebrate the achievements in Education development in Rwanda mostly in promoting Kinyarwanda literacy among the children over the last Five years.

Through this project, children from primary (p 1-p3) gained a package of knowledge in reading and writing Kinyarwanda Language.

The project has also contributed in building classrooms of children from primary 1, p2 and p3 and trained teachers.

**Children search for books to read in their library at Gasave Public Park Library/The New Times**

To further reading culture, the project established various libraries of children countrywide.

Speaking to The Inspirer on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 during the official closing ceremony of the Five-year USAID-Funded project ‘SOMA Umenye’, Gaspard Twagirayezu, Minister of State in charge of Primary and Secondary Education said that Kinyarwanda language is very important as it helps children to learn other foreign languages. He added that Kinyarwanda language lesson has seven (7) to eight (8) hours in a week on the school calendar.

“MINEDUC has been pleased to partner with Soma Umenye especially in the National Reading Campaign in 2020 and 2021 and throughout COVID-19 school closures whereby all partners involved used creative ways to support the dissemination of digital reading materials.” Twagirayezu said.

**Gaspard Twagirayezu, Minister of State in charge of Primary and Secondary Education./Courtesy photo**

“The Ministry of Education and the Rwanda Education Board have partnered to help children from Primary 1 to Primary 3 to learn and improve knowledge in reading and writing, Usaid-Soma Umenye helped us to equip children with necessary knowledge in reading and writing where they gave us books and trained teachers. This is as well a milestone that we believe will help us to achieve more in boosting Education in our country.” He added.

Twagirayezu said that there is still more work to do and that they will continue working to sustain the gains already made as the education family by learning from own experiences and ensure that all students are given the best opportunity to succeed in life.

The event was an opportunity to reflect on Soma Umenye’s five and a half years journey and its impactful contribution to P1 to P3 literacy development through books, training of teachers & strengthening the education system around foundational skills, especially in Kinyarwanda.

The project aimed to support early literacy by reaching at least 1 million P1-P3 children in Public & Government-aided Schools to advance their Kinyarwanda reading skills.

Peter Hendrick Vrooman, the US ambassador to Rwanda said: “Over the last three years, children from p1, p2 and p3 could not read Kinyarwanda very well but they can now read at a very outstanding level. The United States of America (U.S.A) will continue to promote Kinyarwanda language literacy to enable all children know how to write and read in this regard.”

Launched in September 2016, the USAID-funded activity ‘Soma Umenye’ had objectives to improve reading outcomes in Kinyarwanda for more than 1 million children in public and government-aided schools in Rwanda.