GPENreformation is an international network of Protestant schools and educational institutions that agree to become members. It plays a mediating role to facilitate communication and collaboration between educational institutions. Unfortunately many schools in Rwanda and around the world do not yet know GPENreformation in order to register. It is then the responsibility of the ambassadors, friends and schools already members of GPENreformation but this sensitization work concerns more particularly the offices of GPENreformation.
The GPENreformation regional office in Kigali, Rwanda was set up to facilitate sensitization in Africa and to exploit opportunities for exchanges and cooperation between schools. At the moment, Rwanda is one of the countries that have registered a lot of members compared to others. This is because he had the chance to host the GPENreformation conference in 2017. However in the Eastern Province of this country, we have very few members so far. To find new members of GPENreformation in this country, the regional office organized the sensitization visit to 12 schools in the districts of Rwamagana and Kayonza.
From March 27 to 30, 2023 Jean Baptiste Ndamukunda, the office worker of GPENreformation visited the schools of GS Nyarugari, GS Mwurire II, GS Rwamagana, GS Kabare, La Découverte and Youth for Christ School in the District of Rwamagana. In Kayonza, he visited EP Nyamirama, EP Mukarange, Kayonza Eden, GS Nyagahandagaza, GS Gahini and EP Gahini. At each school visited, he spoke with the administrative staff of the school to give them information about GPENreformation. This information mainly focused on the history, objectives and benefits of becoming members of GPENreformation. After these explanations, there were also possibly questions to answer in order to convince the administrative staff of these schools.
This time, the GPENreformation employee brought his Laptop machine and the Internet modem to show these sensitized people how to open the GPENreformation website and register online. This has allowed these people to find that registration is quick and easy for any school that wants it. During this visit to the schools, it was also a good time to talk about the pedagogical and administrative aspects of these schools. Two major changes are observed in all schools in Rwanda:
- a) The decision taken by the Rwandan government to offer Lunches to students at their schools has reduced latecomers, absences and dropouts of students. There were certainly children who could not find meals at home and who did not return to school.
- b) The digitization of the education data reporting system in Rwanda is a big step. Currently, school principals no longer travel with report forms to bring them to the District. The Ministry of Education designed software used it and the work became quick and good.
Written by Jean Baptiste Ndamukunda
Kigali/Rwanda
