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Where we do it > Rwanda - Meg Fletcher

Name: Meg Fletcher
Role: Organisational Development Adviser, SNEC Kigali
Location: Kigali, Rwanda

The National Secretary for Catholic Education (SNEC) has influence throughout Rwanda. It oversees 1,200 schools, which in total employ 13,000 teachers who in turn teach a million pupils. Therefore any strategic plans and ideas that are implemented have a huge impact. While SNEC is a hugely influential organisation, it still needs help with best practice, information gathering, identifying student needs as well as developing strategic plans for growth.

SNEC is seen as an important organisation, together with local district councils, in the government’s moves to strengthen the delivery of education in Rwanda. Better teacher training, improved inspectorates and introducing computers to schools will support efforts to rebuild the education system following the genocide.

VSO volunteer Margaret ‘Meg’ Fletcher, a retired head teacher with 25 years experience, is typical of the type of volunteer VSO now recruits. Experienced education professionals like Meg are working alongside Ministries of Education and other management bodies to ensure education systems are well run, curricula relevant and inspiring and teaching methods motivating so that children are getting the best quality education possible.

At SNEC Meg is working specifically on its strategic overview and long term development plans. ‘My role here is to assist people in developing their ideas in relation to education’ Meg says. ‘People here are very clear about what they want, it’s just that they don’t have any experience in how to get it. I’ve got 25 years’ experience as a head teacher so I know some of the questions to ask and how to set achievable goals. A good example of this is the business plan I’ve been helping to prepare. It’s a massive project funded by Canada to put computers and information and communications technologies (ICT) in schools across Rwanda. This needs intricate planning to ensure the programme will work. Obviously, in the years I worked as a teacher in England I saw how computers became more prevalent in schools and so I understood how an effective ICT programme could work. I also saw how it could be done better – in the implementation and the training. So when drawing up this business plan I knew who to ask about certain things and what to ask. It’s from working in the the bidding culture in Britain that I’ve managed to do this.’

The success of plans like this understandably relies on having teachers to deliver the education, but in Rwanda this in itself is a challenge. As Meg states, ‘during the genocide 12 years ago schools and buildings were targeted, infrastructure was destroyed. A lot of teachers were killed or left the country altogether and so there is a massive rebuilding programme. There is a huge shortage of teachers, but we know what we have to achieve.’

What Meg finds most inspiring is the belief her local colleagues have in their ability to rejuvenate the education system and help build a more positive future for Rwandan school children. ‘It may be beyond my comprehension to see how they’ll achieve this but the Rwandan people I work with truly believe they will achieve this – that’s what’s amazing.’

Meg feels that whilst giving a lot to the programme, she’s getting a lot out of it: ‘the people I work with listen to me and want to learn. Then there’s the people I meet every day. Both young and old show me a lot of respect – I think it’s respect not only for my age, but the knowledge I bring with me. Sometimes adults greet me and take me by the hand and say we’re glad you’re here. I can see now, after being here for a while that life doesn’t stop when you retire. People say being in Rwanda, you get younger every year…you can only hope this is true!’

Alphonse Rutaganda, director of SNEC is very positive about the outcomes of Meg’s work with the organisation, ‘Before Meg leaves I want to say a big thank you to her and to VSO. They have been more than just a helping hand, they’re a lifeline that we have benefited from technically and economically, because our means are very limited. We also see Meg’s work here as an international collaboration. It’s an opening to the rest of the world.’

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