August 7, 2020
"...I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others." - Wole Soyinka.
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Country Updates
Kenya:
On Wednesday, July 29, the Equity and Inclusion thematic group convened a meeting to update members on the status of the on-going activities. The group is collaborating with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and UNICEF to shape the agenda for the implementation of the parental empowerment and engagement strategy under the competence based curriculum. During the week, RELI members responded to a national online survey on the status of parenting during COVID-19.

The group has also submitted a request to hire a research assistant to support tracking of the policy areas identified by RELI. These include parental engagement, children furthest behind, education in urban informal settlements, teacher development and competence based assessment.
Uganda:

On July 23, the Life skills cluster convened a meeting where members exuded an enthusiastic mood as they welcomed a new member organization on board - Girls to Lead Africa headed by Kansiime Honest. They reflected on the progress of the clusters annual work plan, shared their experiences on the ongoing interactive Schools 2030 Human Centred Design (HCD) training, and received updates on the ongoing participation in the learning sessions. The team plans to convene a session with a team that developed the taxonomy of life skills organised by Echida Giving. RELI members will also be called upon to contribute to the selection of experts. The expert committee will be composed of policy makers, assessment, and lifeskills experts. Members were informed of the confirmation status of the newly nominated RELI Uganda country hub-Luigi Giussani Institute of Higher Education. They also elected a new leader - Emmy Zoomlamai, FICH (Foundation for Inclusive Help) who will lead the cluster together with Gasper Obua (Fundi Bots). Teddy Mutoni from LUIGI will now support the country hub as the RELI Project Assistant. The cluster is gearing up for a psychosocial support training intervention tailored for learners, teachers and parents to enable them become more resilient.
On July 24, the special needs education and policy analysis technical working group, together with the Uganda Society for Disabled Children (USDC) on behalf of the Equity and Inclusion cluster and other Civil Society Organisations, presented the National Inclusive Education Policy (NIEP) to the Sector Policy Management (SPM) working group. The Assistant Commissioner in charge of Special Needs and Inclusive Education, Sarah Bugosi, led the discussion. For the policy to be passed, it must undergo several stages for approval by key stakeholders and departments/levels of the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES). The policy has so far been presented and approved by the Special Needs and Inclusive Education, Basic Education and Monitoring and Evaluation technical working groups. The SPM, composed of directors of MoES directorates/departments, commissioners and agencies such as UNATCOM, UNESCO among others, is one of the last steps for approval before the top levels of the Ministry of Education and Sports. The need to harmonize the existing MoES policies (National Teacher and BTVET policies) with the NIE policy including others being drafted was emphasized. Furthermore, the aspect of assessing all learners to determine their learning needs and capabilities coupled with skilling learners and retooling of teachers were re-echoed as ideal policy actions.
The meeting, co-chaired by the Director Basic Education - Ismael Mulindwa and the Director Directorate of Education Standards - Kedrace Turyagyenda (PhD), was attended by a total of 50 participants and passed to the next level for approval - the Education Sector Consultative Committee (ESCC).
What we're reading this week:

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