'We are not going to miss out on the technological revolution' Paul Kagame (paraphrased)

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Rwanda 2012 Reflection #4 – do you use your role for a higher purpose?

As Principals, Superintendents or school leaders, do you use your position to try and ‘be the change’? It seems like a straightforward enough question – but probably one that bears a little more thought and conversation.

School leaders do have the capacity to speak out or take action more than others in a community. I guess that just “comes with the territory”. Though, if your experience is anything like mine, getting politicians and policy creators in my own State to listen is probably the hardest task of all. For some reason, the hometown is tough territory.

However – not so in Africa. My experience over the last few years in three different African countries – Malawi, Uganda and Rwanda has demonstrated otherwise. As a school leader from the developed world, I can have quite an influence on education systems in countries seeking aid. There are two reasons for this that I can see: firstly, Principals are respected as community leaders and secondly, as a result of my own experience, knowledge and understanding, there is in fact a lot I can share.

Only barriers in my mind

Rwanda is a nation that looks to use ‘borrowed talent’ in order to help development. In relation to education, I have found people in the different sections of education administration, extremely willing to talk and support whatever focus we bring. I have been honoured to be able to speak with a range of government officials over the last few years, including the Minister for Education (now an Ambassador), the Director General of Education, Chief Inspector of Schools, Head of the Higher Education sector and the Rector of the Kigali Institute of Teacher Education, among a number of people. These people are all excellent educational administrators and understand well what directions they need to steer their departments or institutions. Their main challenge would be resource related. The only barrier to supporting these people comes from my own perception that there is little someone like me might contribute. Such barriers exist only in my mind!

My African experience has also taught me that Principals really value the encouragement and support that can come from professional sharing with colleagues. In Australia (as well as times in the States, the UK, Finland, Canada, Sweden and elsewhere), we take the ability to talk with colleagues for granted. The opportunity to meet with and support fellow school leaders in developing nations such as Rwanda is more limited – largely because of the constraints of distance, travel, costs and staffing.

Share the journey – at any level

In the last three years I have travelled to Africa and had the opportunity to mix with fellow educators over there. I wish I had done this earlier in my professional career and I want to encourage you to use your talents, your gifting, your social standing for such purposes. By highlighting my journey, I am inviting you to share it.

I recall a comment, made by the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, that I have read somewhere where he said (my version): “we [Rwanda] missed out on the industrial revolution; we missed out on the agricultural revolution. We are not going to miss out on the technological revolution”. A visionary statement indeed!

A challenge thrown, a challenge received

During my second visit to Rwanda, I was thrown a challenge by Bishop John Rucyahana (now the Rwandan Reconciliation Commissioner). He told me that the churches are responsible for all the government schools in this region. But they have no money for it. He threw out a challenge to consider whether there was something that I could do that would help the schools. “Do something to help the schools. Do something to help the children.”

One possible way ahead

Having visited a number of the schools I can see what is needed. We need to help:
- reinvent the direction of learning
- lower the high post school unemployment rates (80 – 85% in many instances)
- rebuild many buildings
- retrain many teachers so that their English is more fluent
- improve literacy and numeracy achievements
- provide opportunities for the children so that they might be able to realize their dreams and ambitions
- find some funding
- direct new mobile technologies to the students and teachers

Obviously, a comprehensive strategy is needed – far bigger than my solo capacities!

So, my thoughts … what if I hold a summit? What if I used the natural beauty of this area to hook people into an African adventure? What if we had a collision of minds? What if I led others to walk the same journey for a few days – educators, entrepreneurs, architects, IT specialists, consultants, carpenters, explorers, anyone! What if we could use our collective thinking to describe a model for learning that would help in all these areas? What if we used our collective connections to find innovative ways of achieving the goals?

Rwanda was let down by a world which abandoned it in 1994 with devastating consequences - ‘We could and should have done more’ – Kofi Annan, 2004 (see my previous blog post: http://www.connectedprincipals.com/archives/5257). Let us use that as inspiration to help now.

The tale of two schools

To conclude, I’ll focus on the story of two schools. I am hoping to include a participant visitation to both of these schools as part of the [rw12] Innovate Rwanda summit during 24-26 May, 2012. Perhaps like me, you might compare the circumstances with your own school’s context.

Maya 1
Maya 1 is a rural school in the northern Province, not too far from Rugeshi– it can be found after travelling just a little way off the main road via rocky tracks created out of volcanic rocks within maize fields. There were hundreds of children that I saw the times I visited. I was told Maya 1 was built in 1934. The French & Kinyarwandan speaking Headmaster is an absolute gentleman – a stoic, resilient, compassionate educator. I’ll summarize his challenges:

• There is no electricity.
• There is no running water.
• There are no English-speaking teachers in a school where the children are being prepared for national exams in English.
• Some classrooms are so badly damaged by the earthquakes that accompanied the volcanic eruption in nearby Congo about six years ago, that the children have to huddle on to the benches in just one third of the classroom.
• In many classes over 70 children sit crammed on benches with no books, no pencils.
• There are few working blackboards.
• The windows are forced shut.
• There is little light.
• The children therefore learn largely by rote - for hours on end.
• When it rains, the teachers take the children into the adjacent church. The roof is safer there.
• The textbooks are in English. They sit in a dry room, hand built by the Principal.

It would seem to me this is pre-industrial revolution era education. The amazing thing is that the children seem happy in general and are very mindful of any opportunities that come their way. Imagine how much more we will be able to offer if we combine the enthusiasm of these children and their teachers with some assistance from the developed world. I spoke on this last trip with a parent of the school who lives adjacent to the property. She said it is “a good school – but it needs urgent help because of the roof”.

Kagogo Secondary School

Kagogo Secondary School stands above the beautiful Lake Burera in the northern province, nearby the Volcanoes NP – an amazing location. It currently caters for about 530 students - boarders. The school is already noted for its outstanding outcomes – especially in Science. Many students have gone on to further study at tertiary levels. It is already oversubscribed with waiting lists of local children who would love to come here to study. However, Kagogo has some significant infrastructure challenges:

• There is no electricity.
• There is no fresh running water.
• There are very limited toilet facilities for the students (3 latrines for over 120 girls; 7 for over 400 boys).
• The washrooms have no water supply – other than the buckets which the students carry with them.
• The boarding dormitories are crowded.
• There are no electric lights in the evening.
• The students need to bring their own mattresses and mosquito nets (if they have them).
• The chefs prepare food for all the students on wood-fuelled burners, in a kitchen with no electricity or running water. Meals are cooked for 530 students plus teachers three times a day.

Inspired to help? Join us!
On 24th, 25th and 26th May, 2012, SCIL (Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning) is holding a summit as a starting point to do something. We are going to locate it in this region. We are going to take people to these places - the fields, the homes, the schools. We are going to take people to join our journey. We are hoping for a collision of minds to find ways to construct a different future for these children. We have no other agenda. It may just be that we can create a template that can be applied to schools anywhere in the developing world! Wouldn’t that be outstanding!

We are hoping you will join us:

W http://scil.com.au/rwanda
T @scil #rw12
E aknock@scil.nsw.edu.au

 

‘They walk straight past us’

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Rwanda Reflections #3 - ‘They walk straight past us’

 

Through this series of blog posts, I am seeking to process another profound experience - visiting Rwanda for the fourth time. I am also hoping to raise awareness of the educational needs of this country – particularly in the regional rural schools. And I am inviting you to join SCIL (the Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning) as we plan an international summit – a collision of minds, to take place in the stunning foothills of the Volcanoes NP, home to the mountain gorillas: scil.com.au/rwanda

 

One of the most moving experiences of my life has been to go for a stroll around the fields of Kinigi - the fields and undulating lower hills that surround the Volcanoes National Park. I have now visited this area three times. It is an amazing walk. I have walked there before with a few friends and colleagues - modern day ‘pied pipers’. On every occasion, we have been progressively joined by dozens of little feet walking alongside us – often barefoot. Not aggressive, nor assertive - just joining us. In a clearing we stop and we offer to play – word games, song games, action games – anything we can recall as once-primary teachers.  At our request they sing their national anthem – a melodic song known by all and sung with pride. During the second trip we finished up playing soccer with the local lads in a clearing. It was a national holiday.

 

These fields appear to the outsider as serenely calm – but the reality would be that they are a place of constant struggle for survival. The houses dotted over the countryside are mud huts. The kitchens are most often separate - commonly constructed out of eucalypt leaves and branches. I take note of the small ‘sentry-box’ sized mud brick latrines. How do they cope? How do they keep well? With every question asked, I have lots more in my head. How do 9 people live in a single room dwelling? Some questions are best left unasked. I don’t see many girls. A few are around – but they are younger. Most likely their older sisters are tilling the fields or shelling the bean pods. Work today for tonight’s meal. Repeat that tomorrow. Repeat that the next day.

 

‘They walk straight past us’

We talk in a constantly changing pattern of conversations. They are all eager for a turn. A comment made by a young man, Honore, hits home: “people come to see the gorillas; they visit them, then they walk straight past us. You have come back to see us …” These young people are perceptive. They are also highly appreciative. They don’t resent the constant trickle of tourists, but they certainly appreciate people who have come to visit them. We chat. Honore loves studying biology and chemistry. He attends a school in Musanze. That must mean a ride every day in the crammed white mini buses. How does he pay for that? I offer to email him to help his English language skills. Then another small comment strikes home: “You offer your email to us first. That is different. Others only take ours, but don’t give us theirs.” Honore keeps chatting, not missing a beat. I inwardly smile as I recognize that he is taking every second available to practise his English. He knows that this is a great way to achieve that goal. Then he might be a better doctor, a better Principal, a better scientist.

 

Softly spoken Christian – ‘we are very poor’

I observe that Honore already has the welfare of others in his sights. He clearly sees a role in mentoring his younger field friends in English - friends such as Christian and Eric. I met Christian two trips ago. Christian, then 14, approached me on the first trip. He wanted to say hello. He was not inappropriate. He told me about his family. I asked him whether he went to school. He was in Primary 5. I didn’t have any contact with him after that first chance meeting. The second time I went to the area, he recognized me from across the fields. I asked him how school was. He was now in Primary 6. He told me he has to pass the national exam in order to get to secondary school. He doesn’t know whether will achieve that yet. I ask him about the future. What does he want to do? He had heard of a boarding school for secondary about 10 kilometres away. He had never been there. But he knew it would be an opportunity. He clearly dreams of this. (Maybe I can make a difference?) We exchanged email addresses. (Where would he go to send an email? I have no idea.) I see no electricity. His school doesn’t have computers. I see nothing but subsistence farming. He rushed off saying he wanted to give me something. He came back with a beautiful gift - a mountain gorilla carved out of jacaranda timber. I look at it every day.

 

First time - visitor; second time - friend; third time - family

I received two emails during the six months between visits. (How on earth did he manage to do that?) He asks if I am coming back. I hesitantly say yes. I don’t want to unsettle him or give false hope. I tell him we would be back that Saturday morning, early January 2012. He was right where he said he would be near the car park. He was there with dozens of others, mainly boys or young lads. No doubt word had spread within the community that the ‘mzungu’ people (white people) were coming again. He smiles. We start walking through the fields again. I don’t want to unsettle him. I sense that he would like me to come to his home, to meet his family. I have no idea what I am walking into. He generously steps back when his field friends step up to take their turn to chat and use their broken English. I ask each one to tell me what they want to do. Who they want to be? There are lots of aspirational doctors and a few teachers. “I want to help people.”

 

We finish up climbing the roughly cobbled road to his home. His home measures about 2.5 meters by 4 metres, I’d say at a rough guess. Nine people live in it. His parents. They must have a genocide story - everyone older than 17 does. (I’ll leave that to another time.) He is one of six. His elder brother is married and he lives in the home with his wife too, hence the nine. We are welcomed and sit down between the mud hut and the kitchen outpost constructed from dried eucalypt branches. Each day is spent in the small rock strewn hillside allotment. Each day is about getting the food for the next. Christian’s little sister looks on from a rocky ‘box seat’ position. We are joined by 30, maybe 40, soon 50 other children. My friend and social protector, Banner is nearby. Barack and Brian are there also. They can translate. Barack has just finished Senior 6 and wants to do Computer Science. Brian is in Senior 5 at the boarding school and term has not yet recommenced. Brian is studying hard so he can become a doctor. He lives in Kinigi too. I don’t know where this story will end. But it will continue, I know.

 

What can I do that might change the life circumstances of these children? What I can do to show them that the world has not forgotten them. Their resilience, aspiration and respect are phenomenal. What do I understand about poverty cycles? How do we break it? Why do I have so much (opportunity and possessions) and they so little? What am I doing with my circumstance?

 

Join us

On 24th, 25th and 26th May, 2012, SCIL (Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning) is holding a summit as a starting point to do something. We are going to locate it in this region. We are going to take people to these places - the fields, the homes, the schools. We are going to take people to join our journey. We are hoping for a collision of minds to find ways to construct a different future for these children. We have no other agenda. We are hoping you will join us:

W scil.com.au/rwanda

T @scil #rw12 

E aknock@scil.nsw.edu.au

 

‘We could and should have done more’ – Kofi Annan, 2004

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Rwanda 2012 Reflection #2 – ‘We could and should have done more’ – Kofi Annan, 2004

 

A journey

I have just spent 8 days in Rwanda in preparation for a summit I am organizing with some colleagues - [rw12] Innovate Rwanda (www.scil.com.au/rwanda). During these days, I had the privilege of being invited into the homes of several families in rural regions of Rwanda. I also re-visited some amazing schools in districts such as the undulating Rugeshi region, the serene shores of Lake Burera and the fields of Kinigi at the foothills of the volcanoes. It was my fourth visit to Rwanda.

 

My hunch is that Rwanda faces a critical decade. By the end of this decade, history will be a generation removed from the genocide. I was initially anxious about visiting Rwanda, most likely linked to images of the genocide that are imprinted in my brain. Travelling through the country, you will see momentary uncomfortable reminders of that time - a young boy carrying a mattock on his head as he walks along the road, a man carrying a machete. But these items are no longer the implements of war, they once again just the tools of daily subsistence farming.

 

I feel repulsed by the genocide. It is impossible to visit the genocide memorial and not be moved to tears – especially when in the Children’s memorial section. The signs and photos say it all, recounting each child’s favourite food, toy, friends and how they were slaughtered.

 

I still feel angry when I re-read Kofi Annan’s statement in 2004 – no doubt his greatest regret: ‘We could and should have done more’. The world let Rwanda down in 1994 with devastating consequence. We must not do that again. And now as Rwanda continues to rebuild, reorder and reset their society, they welcome ‘borrowed talent’. People whose thinking can help them move forward - not to take over, just stand alongside.

 

Resilient hope

Last Saturday morning we went for a walk along a track near Kinigi, at the foothills of the Volcanoes NP. It was the start of the same track that tourists trek when they are going to see the mountain gorillas. A young man watches us then tentatively approaches. He speaks to Anne first, polite, respectful. I beckon him over. My intuition tells me that he sees an opportunity to simply talk. (How could I ever refuse that?) After a while, I ask the questions, some seemingly risky. And as I listened to James’ story, I start to learn. He is engaging. He looks tired. But I become aware of a resilient hope.

 

I ask James about his family and we inevitably get on to the difficult but imprinted experience of 17 years ago. James recalls running in panic into the fields the day his father was killed. James was only about 2 years old then, he thinks. But that was then and this is now. Today he is a young adult, very evidently incredibly respectful. He is in Senior 4 at a district secondary school. He wants to study tourism. He knows he needs to improve his struggling English to do that. He doesn’t have an English dictionary. Sometimes there are words he just cannot work out. But he clearly has an indefatigable aspiration that one day he will have a job that will empower him to make choices. No doubt he will be an excellent Dad himself: generational healing - generational reconciliation.

 

Innovate Rwanda

Come and help people like James. We want to help jump the schools in the northern rural regions of Rwanda through the centuries to the 21st century. We are hoping that a collision of creative minds might just facilitate that. Please consider joining us – for the journey of a lifetime:

W scil.com.au/rwanda

T @scil #rw12

E aknock@scil.nsw.edu.au

 

Privileged at birth – but for what purpose?

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Rwanda Reflection #1 – Circumstantial Privilege

I probably think way too much and I’ve had the opportunity to travel a fair amount in the last few years as part of a process to determine ‘next practice’ for our school. When in the air and looking at a map of the terrain over which we are flying, I often think just how fortunate I am to be living in a country where the whole of our continent is free of war. If I landed in any one of a number of countries or continents, my circumstance would be vastly different to the life I currently enjoy. What would it be like to have been born in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran or Somalia? Why was I privileged at birth to be born in New Zealand?

 

When I came to Sydney in 1969, I came in by boat. But I didn’t have to find ways to circumvent Australian authorities. We sailed straight into Circular Quay. My family ancestry means I could get a job in the UK if I wanted to. I have choices and options. Taking that reflection one step further - when I travel, I can apply online to gain visa access to other countries with little hassle. In many cases, Australia has been party to a universal visa exemption scheme, enabling me to travel widely. When it comes to entering the US, I can enter via straightforward online processes. No desperate thoughts as a refugee.

 

Sobering reality

In short, the experience of life for many people on this planet is significantly different from mine. At the World Innovation Summit for Education (www.wise-qatar.org) in 2011, I was reminded that there are still about 75 million children who don’t have access to education. There are around 250 million children still caught up in child labour. The biggest issue preventing girls from attending secondary school is forced early marriage.

 

A journey

I feel compelled to do something that changes the life choices for others. I have just spent 8 days in northern Rwanda in preparation for a summit I am organizing with some colleagues - [rw12] Innovate Rwanda, 24 – 26 May, 2012. We want to help jump the schools in the northern rural regions of Rwanda through the centuries to the 21st century. We are hoping that a collision of creative minds might just facilitate that. Please consider joining us – for the journey of a lifetime:

 

W scil.com.au/rwanda

T @scil #rw12

E aknock@scil.nsw.edu.au