Program to enhance mathematical thinking for 90 primary schools

The program aims to enhance mathematical thinking skills for 90 primary schools, starting with P1 and P2 students. The program is designed to build skills such as relying on one's own knowledge and logic to solve problems, reasoning abstractly, and explaining and justifying the process used to solve problems. The program includes a comprehensive teacher's guide that suggests various activities to enhance the current curriculum. Interactive Audio Instruction (IAI) programs guide teachers and students through engaging lessons employing games, chants, songs, and poems. The program also focuses on developing students' mental math skills, such as quickly calculating simple arithmetic operations in their heads. This is achieved through activities like calling out the number that is one more than the number of fingers the teacher is holding up. Open-ended word problems and physical representations of mathematical concepts are also used to develop problem-solving skills. Word problems require children to think more analytically about the information they encounter, rather than asking one specific question. For example, a problem may ask "Muhire has 1 pencil. Shema has 3. What can you say?" This type of problem has many correct answers, allowing students to think creatively and develop their analytical skills. Physical representations, such as number lines, are used to help students visualize and understand mathematical concepts. These visual aids allow children to figure problems out for themselves, even if they have forgotten or do not know the rule. The program aims to develop a disposition in students to tackle problems with only the knowledge they have, or can find on their own, and without a pre-learned solution method. In addition to the numeracy program, schools will receive a comprehensive literacy support package for English and Kinyarwanda. REB and L3 will train teachers on the use of these materials and the instructional techniques they support. The program is funded by USAID and implemented by Education Development Center with assistance from various organizations. By 2016, primary grades 1 to 4 in all public schools across the country will benefit from these programs.