National Volunteer in Early Childhood Education In-Service Methodology (Nyamasheke District)

About VSO
VSO is the world’s leading independent international development organization
that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries. Our
high-impact approach brings people together to share skills, build
capabilities, promote international understanding and action to change lives
and make the world a fairer place.

Role
overview

Provide Coaching, mentoring and supp

ort to teachers, parents, school children
and community members to improve the school-based livelihoods activities. In
close partnership with school leaders, parents, and district agriculture
officer, you will establish a model school gardens. By establishing a school
garden you will be involved to secure land (normally offered by school), proper
land preparations, securing relevant farm inputs, and engaging parents and
community members to participate voluntarily in its establishment. You will
coach , mentor and support the school leaders and parents so that they will be
able to take over the responsibility for subsequent maintenance of the school
garden including to ensure that it continues to support the education of ECE
children.

This is part of
VSO’s STRENGTHENING SCHOOL READINESS in Rwanda project funded to improve
pre-service and in-service school services for early-childhood education and
school-based livelihoods activities. This is a fulltime national volunteering
opportunity to be based in Nyamasheke District.

Skills,
qualifications and experience required

This job supports a VSO project funded to strengthen the early-childhood
pre-service and school systems of early-childhood education in Nyamasheke. The
job involves supporting schools to develop model pre-primary practices: these
schools will be visited frequently by student teachers from the nearby Teacher
Training College for lesson observation and teaching practice.

Responsibilities:
• Work with international technical advisors and other national volunteers as
part of a team to develop teaching materials for a play-based, learner-centred
approach to teaching and learning at pre-primary level (currently pre-primary
teachers lack access to teaching materials) – your contribution will be
knowledge of the Rwandan context and translation from English to Kinyawanda.
The team will be supported by a Quality Assurance Expert.
• Train parents, with support from an international technical advisor, on
providing home-based support for the educational development of their
pre-primary aged children
• Support schools with identification of children with special needs and
assessment of their needs
• Support schools and an international technical advisor with the organisation
and implementation of training of parents, one-to-one consultations between
parents and teachers and meetings to assess the special needs of children
• Contribute to the development of tools to assess the effectiveness of
training of parents to provide home-based support for the educational
development of their pre-primary-aged children.
• Provide follow-up support to the training of parents and sensitively monitor
and assess their support for their children in the home using an assessment
tool.
• Produce monthly reports on progress of work with reference to qualitative and
quantitative information.
• Provide translation English-Kinyawanda translation between an international
technical advisor and pre-primary teachers to support them with piloting of the
teaching materials
• Provide translation and logistical support to an international technical
advisor during training of teachers, head teachers, Sector Education Officers
and parents
• Facilitate constructive interactions between an international technical
advisor, teachers, head teachers, Sector Education officers, PTA members,
parents and other agencies to enable parents to provide home-based support for
the educational development of their pre-primary children and the effective
inclusion of children with moderate special needs.

NB: Due to the nature of our
volunteer placements, it is possible that the responsibilities of this role may
differ in reality and therefore the postholder will need to be prepared to be
flexible and adapt to their environment as necessary.

This placement is
part of a VSO ECE funded project which will be managed by the VSO Rwanda
Education programme staff. The main purpose of the project is to strengthen the
pre-service and school system for early-childhood education in Rwanda. The
government and Ministry of Education have acknowledged the importance of
providing quality ECE for children as a foundation for future education success
and economic development. However, despite ambitious and well-intentioned
government efforts to deliver educational outcomes at pre-primary level,
challenges remain due to systemic deficiencies and low technical capacity. The
programme will provide a range of inputs to tackle these challenges and provide
a foundation for the provision of quality ECE.
In 2013 a pre-primary course option was introduced in Teacher Training Colleges
for the first time. A draft curriculum was developed for the implementation of
the course. However, as yet teaching materials to support the implementation of
the course have not yet been developed and distributed to the colleges.
Furthermore, most pre-service early-childhood education course tutors have
little or no experience of teaching early-years children in schools and have a
limited understanding of the key features of an effective approach to the
provision of early-childhood education. In addition, pre-primary teachers in
schools at which student teachers on the ECE course frequently observe and
practice teaching have experienced no pre-service training and in the most part
have experienced very little in-service training. As such, the pre-service ECE
course currently lacks quality.

The following
improvements to the pre-service course will be made:
• High quality teaching and learning materials for the ECE course will be
developed for use in all 16 Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs).
• All ECE tutors at TTCs will participate in a series of trainings on how to
use the teaching and learning materials to deliver the curriculum in an
interactive, learner-centred way to improve the teaching capacity of the
student teachers
• Through training and support pre-primary classes in which ECE student
teachers can frequently observe lessons and practice teaching will become
models for the implementation of inclusive, effective teaching methods
• The draft pre-service ECE curriculum will be adapted to complement a new
competency-based pre-primary school curriculum.

The school system of
ECE provision also requires significant improvement. Presently, there are no
teaching materials available for distribution to all pre-primary teachers and
no national system of in-service training to provide those teachers with
on-going support. The following inputs will be made to enable the school system
of ECE provision to be improved:
• High quality teaching materials will be developed which can be incorporated
in a teachers’ guide to support the implementation of a new competency-based
pre-primary school curriculum
• A system for in-service training for pre-primary teachers will be designed –
ready for piloting in 2016

Schools or community
early-childhood development centres with pre-primary classes in the vicinities
of TTCs will benefit from intensive training and coaching support. Through
working in those schools activities will be implemented in regard to the
identification, assessment and inclusion of children with special needs of
pre-primary age in schools through engaging with communities, parents and other
relevant agencies. It is known that many special needs can much more
effectively met if those needs are identified and tackled at an early stage.
Also, outreach activities will be implemented to secure parents’ direct support
for the educational development – a key factor in future academic achievement.
The approaches taken will build on those being applied in existing programmes
in Rwanda in order to extend the learning in these areas.
Programme activities will largely be delivered by a team of full-time
high-capacity international technical volunteer advisors supplied by VSO. These
advisors will have sufficient skills and practical experience of provision of
high-quality ECE education to develop quality teaching materials under the
supervision and lead of the consultant and provide excellent quality training
and coaching to build the capacity of ECE TTC tutors, pre-primary teachers,
head teachers, SEOs and SMC/PTA members. Some of these technical advisors will
be specifically recruited for the programme. However, VSO will already have in
place volunteer technical advisors in all 13 TTCs and they will be able to give
a significant level of support to the programme to achieve its objectives. In
addition, National Volunteers will be recruited to work on a voluntary basis to
gain vital work experience. They will work closely with the VSO technical
advisors to support schools with effective engagement with communities and
parents and bring their knowledge of the local context into the development of
teaching materials.
In addition to working closely with a VSO National Volunteer, the volunteer
Early-Childhood Education in-service Advisor will be able to consult with a VSO
Early-Childhood Pre-service Advisor, a VSO Methodology and Resources Advisor
and a Literacy ad Numeracy Advisor who will all work at a nearby Teacher
Training College. The Early-Childhood Education In-service Advisor will also
regularly work as part of a consultant-led team with other volunteers to
develop locally made teaching materials.
Further information about the work of the VSO Education Programme can be found
on the VSO Learning Hub. Information on VSO’s programmes in each of the
countries in which we work can be found on the VSO website.

How to apply
If you’re interested in applying for this role, please download the job
description to read more details about the position and the skills and
experience we’re looking for. To submit your application, click on Apply nowand complete all relevant fields
on the online application form.

Application
closing date

02 Jun 2016

Interview/Assessment
date(s)

As soon as possible

Start date
As soon as possible

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