OLPC Rwanda Team Member, benefited a lesson (curriculum) development workshop with their colleagues on the learning team of MINEDUC.
This past Friday we had a guest workshop from three volunteers from Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). They were each involved in the revision of the English & Social Study curriculum of Rwandan secondary schools.
They showed us the differences between the new and the old curriculum through learner-centered activities. The main difference between the two was the level of detail. In the old currciulum there was basically a list of subjects, but in the new one there is more description on how the lesson can be carried out through learning-centred methods, information on what the students and teacher should be doing and what are the expected outcomes. They also made sure to relate these concepts to Rwandan life. For example, approach early mathematics by introducing a market and the need to buy a certain number of vegetables and fruits, etc.

An interesting challenge they noted to their work was that even though there is a new curriculum there is no awareness about this to schools and teachers and the process to get a curriculum involves either downloading it through the internet (you can imagine the challenges there) or the teacher has to physically go the warehouse were they are stored and request one.
The group is doing a great job distributing to all the schools they can. We concluded the workshop with some basics on creating a lesson plan using the new curriculum. It was very useful and has given our team many ideas and strategies to spread the word about the new curriculum and how the laptop can further enhance its effectiveness.

Steps in developing a lesson plan