Child Protection

The government of Rwandan is committed to placing the family at the center of development, and as a prerequisite to achieve equitable and sustainable development for country at large. This is manifested by the inclusion of family promotion and support commitments as a cross-cutting theme in EDPRS II as well as the 2003 constitution of the Republic of Rwanda as amended to date that conceives the family as the natural foundation of Rwandan society.

The rationale for this Strategic Focus area is to ensure a safe and protective environment free from all forms of abuse for all children to enable them realize their full development potential. Further, the program intends to increase community awareness of and participation in protecting and promoting children's rights, obligations and responsibilities and to establish and implement mechanisms for early identification and mitigation of all forms of abuse and violence against children, particularly those with disabilities and other forms of physical, psycho-social impairments. Child Online Protection as a holistic approach to prevent, report and respond to all potential threats and harms that children may face while acquiring digital literacy, is a common responsibility for NCD and various stakeholders. It deals with interventions to halt risks associated to illegal content, privacy, bullying, harassment, grooming, child sexual abuse, misuse of personal data and peer pressure that are meant to abuse the child’s rights. Child protection thematic area as well calls to establish and implement a transparent and coherent referral systems for families to easily access equitable and cost-effective child support services.

Parenting education

Parenting education and support programmes are prioritized on the conviction that the family is the primary institution through which quality optimal care and early stimulation can be provided to children. However, this conviction comes with the realization that parents may lack some requisite skills and knowledge to provide professional optimal care and support for their children. Parents need guidance on how to support children’s Physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. Cognitive development begins at birth and emergent literacy is one of the most important foundations for later school and life achievements. All parents, literate or illiterate, can support children’s literacy development through simple home activities. Rwanda needs a holistic parenting education programme that helps parents learn about positive parenting and how to develop emergent literacy skills in the home environment. This program therefore is intended to guide through means and measures to support positive parenting and education, elaborating a holistic parenting education curriculum for parents and their children (from birth to 3 years and 3 to 6 years) as well as supporting their transition from childhood to adulthood. Parents will be acquainted with skills to support their children’s emergent literacy and as well as early stimulation and socialization. Parents will also be supported to understand the nature and the means to prevent and report all forms of child abuse being their primary responsibility as parents. 

School readiness and transition

A large number of children enter primary school, with varying levels of preparedness to actually cope with the new school environment. Usually, school readiness is understood, to mean equipping children with a specific set of basic skills and abilities, for example to; follow directions, demonstrate reading, counting and reasoning skills, and carry out independent work by the time they enter school. Further to this however, interventions to promote school readiness and transition shall encompass additional six major dimensions including; children’s physical well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, cognitive/language development, self-help skills and general knowledge.  

To support this program, the government will continue to roll-out the one year school readiness programme for 5 and 6 year olds across all districts following the commitment to establish at least one model ECD centre per cell of each sector by end of the year 2017 targeting the entire scope of 0-6 year age groups. Further, to enhance school readiness among young children, a competency-based curriculum for 3-6 year olds has been developed and will be implemented from January 2016. ECD services are offered through center-based ECD, community based home-based, kindergartens, crèches, and other centers. The scale up of ECD services will be predominantly done by implementing agencies and through delivery of integrated health, nutrition, cognitive development, social protection, and hygiene and sanitation services. The implementing agencies will update the services they deliver to meet the minimum standards prescribed by the ECD Policy.

In principle, it should be noted with consensus that effective school readiness program interventions call for; “ready children for ready schools from ready homes”. This means that preparation of children for schooling and transitioning should have equal and reciprocal emphasis by preparing schools to receive them. School preparations entails managing transitions effectively through use of appropriate teaching and learning methodologies, materials and sensitivity to individual learning needs of children. Ready and supportive homes means a supportive family environment that responds proactively to children learning needs, including promoting early literacy at home and stimulating children to acquire higher cognition abilities through provision of requisite age-appropriate play and learning materials administered right from parenting sessions.

It should also be noted that expanding access to appropriate pre-primary school services (for 3- to 6-year-olds) is a key policy priority to enhance children’s readiness to join and cope with primary school environment. A well-conceived preschool education programme can significantly improve primary school readiness and school performance and enhance overall child development. According to research on the subject, it is clear that children who participate in preschool programmes are more likely to have better language, verbal and arithmetic skills, and consistently higher reading and cognitive achievement scores. Such children often get more interested in formal schools upon enrolment into primary school; are more motivated to learn and, to complete assignments and are more likely to have long term academic success.