April 7, 2020

Quote of the week "Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise." - Michelle Obama .

Country Updates

Kenya: The leadership team convened a virtual learning and planning session on April 3, 2020 to plan for the upcoming country convening scheduled for June. The following policy areas were identified as thematic areas to guide the deliberations; children furthest behind, teacher development policies, competence based assessment, parental engagement and urban informal settlements. A draft agenda for the country convening was developed and circulated.

Tanzania: The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MOEVT) Zanzibar in collaboration with Ministry of State President’s Office-Regional Administration, Local Government and Special Departments (PORALGSD) Zanzibar convened the 3 rd Annual Joint Sector Review (AJESR) from March 9-11 in Zanzibar. The theme was ‘Engaging the community in supporting children positive education outcomes’. Three thematic areas namely resources, quality of instructions and monitoring and accountability were explored to address key issues around community engagement. Dr Maryam Jaffar Ismail , represented RELI Tanzania at the meeting.

The Teacher Development and Support thematic group held its first online zoom meeting on March 29 to deliberate on the implementation status of learning plans, lessons learnt, achievements and opportunities, challenges and way forward. From the meeting, members agreed to have virtual bi-weekly meetings going forward. The next meeting will be on April 12, 2020.

Uganda: On April 2nd, the Uganda Leadership team held its first virtual meeting with an aim to identify ways of keeping RELI members united, inter-connected and proactive in ensuring continuity of some of the RELI engagements. As a way forward, leaders consented to engaging their clusters in identifying topics of interest collectively agreed upon that could be presented for discussion at least once every fortnight in the next 3 months (April, May, June 2020). The leads also welcomed the proposal to ensure RELI members collaborate with the Ministry of Education and Sports in the implementation of its Covid -19 preparedness and response plan nationwide. The purpose of this plan is to ensure better preparedness and effective response by Ministry of Education and Sports, Districts and Local Government and stakeholders to the COVID-19 outbreak.

What we're reading this week: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 63  Event highlights on the corona virus from 31 December 2019 to 3rd April 2020 by World Health Organization (WHO) Young people are crucial to tackling COVID-19 by Shujaaz Strategy communications handbook by WMS Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to "flatten the curve". by Harry Stevens What is the fate of teenage mothers in their quest to access education in Kenya? by Catherine Asego

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