Escaf is one of a few private schools in Kigali with laptops. Being private, instead of receiving laptops for the entire student body by the Ministry of Education, as a part of the One Laptop Per Child Project, some parents with the financial means, were motivated to purchase laptops directly from MINEDUC. Today About 40% of the students in grades Primary 4-6 own laptops.

After 2 months of teacher training in basic use of laptops and introduction to computers and learning, teachers were still arguing about how difficult it is for them to use laptops in their day to day teaching.

“What do we do with the rest of the students, the ones without laptops? They will disturb us and their classmates. ”

“Laptops are a burden for us. First we have to plan our lessons, and then we have to plan again with the laptops!”

“There are no laptops for teachers, so how can you ask us to teach with laptops if we don’t own one ourselves?”

“If we work only with the students that have laptops, then we will be the excluding the rest of the students, it’s not their fault that their parents didn’t buy a laptop for them.”

After listening to their complaints, and trying to understand their point of view, I came up with all sorts of solutions, but for each one they had an excuse that obstructed its implementation. I also realized teachers needed more support with developing lesson plans using laptops. At this point they saw the laptops as a totally separate part of a lesson; they couldn’t see it as a whole.

An urgent change was necessary if we wanted the school to keep progressing in the laptop project.  The headmaster decided to take a more authoritarian role with his teachers.  For my next visit, they had come up with their own plan to work things out.  Teachers were enforced by the headmaster himself to carry out the plan for the next phase.

• Teachers from P4-P6 levels would have their own laptop (lent by Mineduc)
• Teachers from P4-P6 were expected to bring a lesson, and together with the support of OLPC trainers they would develop a plan to incorporate laptops for that specific lesson.
• Students could share their laptops with others, work in pairs
• Students with laptops can be grouped together for additional assignments at the end of a lesson (for ex:  students from P5A, P5B, P5C with laptops in one classroom, while the ones without laptops would be grouped in two other classrooms for different kinds of activities)
• After-school Clubs for students would begin, with the support of OLPC trainers. At least one teacher would be working directly in each club, to learn the process and implementation of the clubs.

To my surprise, teachers were complying with the headmaster’s orders in a very satisfied, content way. And just like with baby steps, the first teacher who stepped up, represented a breakthrough for the whole school, and served as a model and inspiration for others.

What was the deciding element that pushed the project forward when it was about to fall apart? The determination of the head of the school was essential. But, why did he step up and defend the project, instead of taking his teachers’ side? A big reason was the fact that parents who had purchased laptops had put their confidence in the project and in him. They had promised these parents that students would use the laptops in school, but up to that point, the use of laptops had been very limited, and was headed to nearly null if teachers didn’t take a more active, involved role. But aside from these reasons, the headmaster had an additional motivation as a result of a previous revelation he had encountered.

While the teacher training was taking place, the school had scheduled 2 hours of laptop time per week during school hours. OLPC trainers were in charge of these sessions, while teachers took a more passive role, claiming they didn’t have enough training yet. During this laptop time (which lasted for about one month), students developed projects related to their community problems with their laptops. Most of the finalized projects were presented to the headmaster and he was amazed to see how good the students’ projects were.  He said:  “Our students are superior to many others now, because they are very good with the laptops. I support this project, I really believe in it, now that I have seen the wonderful things our students can do.”

A critical aspect for the success of the project is the interest, involvement and enthusiasm of the head of the school. In some cases, authority is the turning point, and the only way out. Especially when it comes to cultures that are so reluctant to modify their routines, and that have a strong resistance to implement other methodologies, even if in the end, they reduce a large part of their efforts as they facilitate their labor in some ways.

by Melissa Henriquez

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