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Rwanda’s New Competence-Based School Curriculum

New Approaches to Assessing Student Learning Needed

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Part of the book series: Higher Education Horizons ((HEHO))

Abstract

Rwanda has embarked on curriculum reform to improve the quality of education. This is a crucial step in the direction of Rwanda’s ambition to “develop a knowledge-­based society and the growth of regional and global competition in the jobs market” (REB, 2015). An important shift has been to move away from a “knowledge-­based curriculum” to a competence-­based curriculumi, and from knowledge and skills acquisition to knowledge creation and application. The aim is to develop students’ independent, lifelong learning habits; appropriate skills and knowledge; and applications to real-­life situations. There is growing recognition of the potential of competence-­based education, unlike traditional subject/content-­based education, to develop the capabilities/competences that are deemed essential for success in both academia and today’s knowledge-­based economy (Darling-­Hammond, 2012; Scardamalia et al., 2012).

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Ngendahayo, E., Askell–Williams, H. (2016). Rwanda’s New Competence-Based School Curriculum. In: Orrell, J., Curtis, D.D. (eds) Publishing Higher Degree Research. Higher Education Horizons. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-672-9_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-672-9_16

  • Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-6300-672-9

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