The Ministry of Education, in partnership with the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) has launched a nationwide initiative to build the capacity of school leaders, district education officers and other frontline education staff to collect, manage and use quality education data for decision-making at all levels.
Through the Tackling Education and Skills Data Challenge in Africa (ESDC) initiative, ADEA and MINEDUC have commissioned Laterite Rwanda to build the capacities of over 8,000 school and district level personnel in areas of data quality and utilization, skills training in data analysis, and dashboards to enhance teaching, learning, and research in Rwanda and align school-level realities with national education priorities.
Laterite Rwanda organized the first session of training for 11 core trainers from MINEDUC who will serve as lead facilitators for the Training of Trainers (ToT) of 104 master and assistant trainers. The master and assistant trainers will, in turn, conduct district-level training sessions for 8,626 school leaders and other supporting staff between November and December 2025. The training delivery plan will cover 4,970 targeted schools including 3,656 public and government-aided schools and 1,314 private schools, distributed across all districts.
The ADEA Executive Secretary, Albert Nsengiyumva remarked that:
this marks the height of an exciting journey that begun about year ago with a bold vision to work with MINEDUC to leverage data and technology to transform education in Rwanda. Transformation begins with people and people drive innovation. Teachers and education administrators play pivotal roles in education transformation, and it is essential to build their capacities to enable them to deliver on the transformation agenda we all seek. ADEA is particularly committed to this.
Hon. Joseph Nsengimana, Rwanda’s Minister of Education, noted that:
strong education systems are built on strong data. Every school register, every exam report and every inspection finding should help us see where to improve, not sit in a file. That is why we are investing in the capacity of school heads and district teams, so that the people closest to students know what to collect, how to protect it, and how to use it to make better decisions for our children. We thank ADEA for partnering with us to take this effort all the way to school level.
Dr. Catherine Honeyman, Country Director for Laterite Rwanda, noted that:
Laterite is proud to support the ministry of Education’s vision for an education system where school leaders actively track and analyze accurate data on students, teachers, infrastructure, equipment, and learning materials. Through the ADEA ESDC project, school leaders are gaining a deeper understanding of the critical role they play in enabling data-driven decision-making at school, district, and national levels.
The Tackling Education and Skills Data Challenge in Africa (ESDC) initiative will support 30 African countries over a five-year period to produce and use quality data on education and skills for informed decision-making through policy, planning, program implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. By strengthening data-driven decision-making, we can enhance educational outcomes and ensure all children have access to quality learning.
For more information, please contact the following persons:
- Mina Okuru, Communications Officer, Education and Skills Data Challenge Initiative, ADEA; m.okuru@afdb.org
- Jade Natacha IRIZA, Communication Expert, MINEDUC; JIRIZA@mineduc.gov.rw
- Jessie Ramirez, Business Development and Communications Associate, Laterite Rwanda; jramirez@laterite.com