For the first couple of years of his teaching career, teacher Fiacre Nsengiyumva thought play should be reserved only for children on the playground. The 28-year-old teacher saw learning and playing as two distinctly separate activities in his school in Gicumbi district, located in rural, northern Rwanda. While he always considered playing and fun as important for his students, aged between 5 and 6, it was restricted to break time only. Classroom time was for learning.
Learning as Mr Nsengiyumva saw it, meant he spoke, and children listened. He wrote on the blackboard, and they paid attention – or at least they were supposed to. When it came to playtime, he considered his role to be that of a guardian, watching out on the playground, to ensure the children in his care didn’t fall or get hurt while playing. He didn’t know that play could be a teaching and learning approach for pre-primary learners until he attended a training about learning through play two years into his career through VVOB’s Improving Teaching Skills on Playful Learning for Africa’s Youngest (IT’S PLAY) project.
Play in Rwanda
The project, supported by The LEGO Foundation, and in partnership with the Rwanda Basic Education Board, introduces learning through play as a key pedagogical approach to stimulate all development domains. Research indicates that play is one of the most important ways in which young children gain essential knowledge and skills. Children learn through play. In other words, playing is learning.
In 2016, Rwanda switched from a knowledge-based curriculum to a competence-based curriculum (CBC) aimed at developing “students’ independent, lifelong learning habits; appropriate skills and knowledge; and applications to real-life situations”. Although this curriculum includes pre-primary education (learners aged 3-6 years old), understanding and implementing learning through play as a key pedagogical approach to stimulate children’s development remains a challenge. To further support national education objectives, Rwanda is in the process of developing a national strategy on learning through play.
VVOB is working with the Ministry of Education on integrating play-based learning into early childhood education. Through the five-year IT’S PLAY project, pre-primary teachers like Mr Nsengiyumva as well as headteachers are being trained by tutors from Teacher Training Colleges to increase understanding and skills in learning through play with a focus on numeracy.
Joyful teaching and learning
Speaking of his newfound knowledge, Mr Nsengiyumva says the training has transformed his teaching job: “I realised I was using a teacher-centred approach. It would make my learners bored and lose interest. Some of them would sleep, and others would even cry as they wanted to go home.” This ‘old’ approach would also tire him: “I would spend so much time talking to children and get exhausted”.
Since he started using the learning through play approach, he has seen positive changes. “Learners are now very excited and don’t get tired anymore! If you give them space, they can go on and on. The playful learning activities are meaningful to them! Learning is now child-centred. I take a different role now. I act as the facilitator of the children’s play as they learn and discover. I also play with my learners as I teach them through play. My work has become much easier, and my learners love and enjoy learning. What I would teach in seven days, now takes me five days. This makes me enjoy my job even more”.
Learning numeracy through play
Mr Nsengiyumva realised that the methodology he used before was ineffective for early childhood education. “For example, I would write numbers on the chalkboard, read them out loud, and then ask learners to repeat them after me. I wanted to make sure they memorise them and can write them afterwards,” he explained. After the training, Mr Nsengiyumva started teaching numeracy through play and found it more engaging for learners. He also prepared and availed more locally available materials for children to work with and develop their number sense. In his class, bottle tops, plastic bottles, paper bags, clay, and banana leaves are now daily used.
The materials also help when teaching children how to write the number symbols. He gives an example of how goes about that now: “I use a variety of ways of ‘writing’ the number symbols. First, I show the learners how to write the number in the air using their hands. Secondly, I take them outside and they write the number in the sand. Next, I write the number on the chalkboard and ask every child to finger-trace the number. After this, I group them in small groups in circles and ask them to model the number using different materials such as bottle tops, stones, sticks, leaves, and beans, among others. Once they are familiar with the number symbol, I write it in the form of discontinued dots and ask them to complete it. The process continues until every learner can write it correctly.”
Classroom management
Managing many learners in a classroom was one of the biggest challenges for Mr Nsengiyumva. “Handling more than 50 was not easy. I learnt how to deal with this, thanks to the training,” said Mr Nsengiyumva.
One of the strategies he uses now is to group children in small groups and put them in different learning corners. “Each corner has a specific activity, and every group is given the opportunity to move to all of them”.
Mr Nsengiyumva also learnt to observe his learners and to listen to them. “I do not only listen to learners’ ideas during playful learning activities. I also approach and listen to each learner who displays unusual behaviour, not participating or is not feeling well. This allows me to know the problem a learner is facing and make sure everyone is playing and learning”.
School leadership support
Xaverine Mukamazimpaka is the headteacher at Mr Nsengiyumva’s school. She also participated in the same training on ‘Learning numeracy through play in pre-primary’. Understanding pre-primary as the foundation of quality basic education, she too has come to value learning through play as an important method to teach preschool children. “Children learn better through play, as they are learning without knowing that they are learning,” she said.
“We see a big difference between learners who attended pre-primary and those who did not. When those who attended pre-primary join primary, it is easier for them to learn, they are also more disciplined,” she said. This is why she supports early childhood educators to ensure quality teaching. “We provide learning materials when needed, do lesson observation, review lesson plans, and provide feedback and coaching when necessary. In addition, we allow teachers to meet and share newly acquired knowledge on early childhood education”.
The IT’S PLAY project is implemented in Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda, with the support of the LEGO Foundation. It aims to strengthen teachers’ skills to facilitate learning through play for emergent literacy and numeracy in ECE. In Rwanda, the IT’S PLAY project has been implemented in Muhanga and Gicumbi districts since 2021 and expanded to Rwamagana and Karongi districts in September 2023. The project focuses on strengthening teachers and school leaders' skills to facilitate Learning through Play for emergent numeracy.
