Photo taken on October 12, 2022 during a visit to the Muhanga partner school by Mr FANDIO Makarios and two of his colleagues.
Improving the quality of education through a virtual learning community in a South-South context: this was the aim of the zoom meeting held on Monday, May 06, 2024, featuring teachers from Zion Education Center Anglican Primary School Muhanga in Rwanda and Alfred Saker Evangelical Primary School in Déido II, Douala, Cameroon.
After a brief individual introduction by each participant, a question-and-answer session followed. This enabled the teachers of both schools to know themselves better and the context in which they work. Teachers of the Evangelical primary School in Douala, Cameroon were surprised to learn that male teachers in Rwanda teach in nursery school and that in the primary school, teachers specialize in a particular subject and the timetable of a class is like that of a secondary school. Teachers of the Zion Education Center Anglican Primary School learned that in Cameroon, non-state secondary schools organise their own entrance exams and do not solely depend on the state exam.
The topic of the day titled: “The protestant school profile” was then introduced and participants were invited to share their understanding. According to the teachers, a protestant school has to lay emphasis on prayer, devotion, songs, training the children in the fear of God, diaconia, Religious studies.
Mr. SIBAHIRE Marcel and Mr. FANDIO Makarios, both laureates of the International Master’s Programme in Educational Quality (IMPEQ) in developing countries shared their knowledge about the topic. They added that key elements of the protestant school profile were: Respect for one another since every human being is created in the image of God, freedom to decide for one’s self, democracy, social justice, literacy (reading and writing), critical thinking, autonomy and self-responsibility.
The general impression after the zoom session was satisfactory with some room for improvement so that everyone can participate actively.
For future collaboration, the two schools have set themselves the challenge of scheduling a minimum of three zoom meetings a year. In fact, the people in charge of the partnership (Mr SEBAHIRE Marcel, Head of the Education and Youth Department in the Diocese of EAR Shyogwe in Rwanda and Mr FANDIO Makarios, Pedagogic Advisor of EEC Schools in Cameroon) are planning to organize a virtual meeting with the Class 5 pupils from both schools.
Photos taken on May 06, 2024 during the zoom meeting
