Ubwuzu: Shaping the Rwandan National Curriculum through Arts

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This project sets out to realise the full impact of our original research project 'Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP)', which was a 'proof of concept' pilot project developed and delivered through the AHRC Network Plus project Changing the Story: Building Inclusive Societies with, and for, Young People in 5 Post-Conflict Countries. The impact follow on funding will extend the reach of the original project, as well as generating policy-level impact through our new relationship with the Rwandan Education Board (REB). In the course of conducting initial research, we discovered that although Music, Dance and Drama was included as a subject in the Curriculum Framework for Pre-Primary to Upper Secondary students (2015), this arts-based curriculum had not been available nor had educators been trained in the subject. Thus, one primary goal for this follow on funding project entitled Ubwuzu (great joy, fullness) is to use the methodology to inform the Curriculum Framework, designing a bespoke creative arts curriculum, and providing training of educators and young people in each province. Rwanda ratified the UNESCO Convention 2005 in 2012 based on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and 'focussed on the upgrading of national cultural expressions and popular participation as a means to promote dialogue and unity'. The UNESCO Diversity of Cultural Expressions Rwanda 2017 report states that measures have significantly contributed to regional integration and sustainable development through the production and dissemination of cultural and artistic performances as well as peace promotion activities'. However, the report notes that these initiatives still need to be scaled up to benefit a much wider audience. Additionally, two of the targeted measures in the report - the implementation of Music and Arts in pre-primary, Primary and Secondary schools and the initiation of the Department of Performing Arts at the University of Rwanda - have yet to be fully actualised. The follow on impact project will address some of these stated needs, to scale up cultural, artistic and peace promotion activities, to promote dialogue and to provide skills in the creative arts.The Ubwuzu project will include co-investigator Mashirika Creative and Performing Arts and partners Aegis Trust, Rwandan Education Board, and Kwetu Film Institute alongside CSOs Future Vision Acrobats, Mindleaps, Niyo Art Gallery, Niyo Cultural Centre, Umuduri Band, Kigali Centre for Photography, Music Mind Consult and Eric 1Key. The noted aims of this follow on project will be delivered through an initial scoping visit and curriculum workshop, followed by a training of trainers of cultural artists and upper secondary educators and the delivery of youth camps in each of the five provinces. By the end of the 2019, there will be an estimated 75 educators and cultural artists and 150 young people who will have been trained in the Ubwuzu methodology to deliver the curriculum in their schools and community at large (serving an additional 5,000 as audience members and workshop participants).