[{"bbox": [97, 153, 1134, 206], "category": "Text", "text": "governance component, it will support better coordination amongst ministries, agencies, and better planning and strategy. Both gender equality and inclusiveness will be mainstreamed all throughout this action."}, {"bbox": [97, 235, 1134, 526], "category": "Text", "text": "This action is aligned with the European Consensus for Development, which recognises the importance of pre-primary education and quality education for long-lasting development, as well as the importance of children’s needs, rights and aspirations, including in the context of comprehensive early childhood interventions. The intervention will also assist Rwanda to transform its education system and address deficits in teaching, training, and learning at all levels, thus contributing to implement the Global Gateway communication. It will further contribute to the implementation of the Gender Action Plan (GAP) country level implementation plan. The action will primarily contribute to SDG 4 (Quality Education), but also to 5 (Gender Equality), 10 (Reduced Inequality), 2 (Zero Hunger), 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and 3 (Good Health and Well Being). It will also contribute to OECD DAC codes 4.2.; 4.5; 4 a. and 4 c. under ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’. This action is fully aligned to the government’s priorities in this sub-sector and supports an overall increase of EU financing for education from 7% to 10%."}, {"bbox": [97, 556, 1134, 636], "category": "Text", "text": "This action should be delivered in a Team Europe approach through a twinning operation with the Rwandan Ministry of Education for the governance part, as well as a blending operation with an EU development finance institution, further positioning the EU at the centre of this, mostly still unaddressed at scale, sub-sector."}, {"bbox": [85, 663, 323, 695], "category": "Section-header", "text": "# 2 RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [85, 729, 234, 756], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.1 Context"}, {"bbox": [97, 775, 1134, 909], "category": "Text", "text": "Rwanda has achieved remarkable progress towards sustainable development over the last 25 years. Economic and developmental success is one of the key factors underpinning the political legitimacy of the Government. However, Rwanda's developmental gains are uneven, including wide socio-economic disparities and inequalities due to the country's history. An underperforming educational system, with poor quality and uneven access, further exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, poses challenges to the future of upcoming generations."}, {"bbox": [97, 937, 1134, 1123], "category": "Text", "text": "In response to these challenges, the Government of Rwanda has made critical investments in the area of education, for example, in the most recent budget (Fiscal Year 2021/2022); the education sector received a boost in public spending. Rwanda has also set ambitious targets to increase the number of students attending Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) schools. However, access and quality remain overall key challenges at every level of the educational system. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a reversal of some gains to the education sector. A tighter fiscal policy could risk lower expenditures being planned on long-term education reforms and creating jobs to boost the economy."}, {"bbox": [97, 1152, 1134, 1285], "category": "Text", "text": "When it comes to pre-primary education, and according to the Education sector strategic plan (2018-2024), Rwanda aims to reach a 45% pre-primary enrolment rate target in 2024 (currently at 17.5%) and is working towards having one pre-primary classroom attached to 63.4% of primary schools by 2023/24, with the long-term goal of establishing a 3 year pre-primary system. The Early Childhood Development Policy and accompanying Strategic Plan was approved in 2016."}, {"bbox": [97, 1314, 1134, 1447], "category": "Text", "text": "Data from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) shows a projected number of children of pre-primary age just over 1 million in 2022. In comparison, the number of children enrolled in pre-primary stands at about 293,000 in the first semester of 2022, with over 710,000 children not enrolled in pre-primary. The existing early childhood education (ECE)/ early childhood development (ECD) school-based offer is currently complemented by community-based centres, which are formal centres set up by parents, NGO's, districts."}, {"bbox": [97, 1476, 1134, 1609], "category": "Text", "text": "Whilst the country's Early Childhood Development Policy recognises that investments made at the pre-primary level are among the most cost-effective in the sector, only 0.6% of the overall education budget (approximately RWF 3 200 000 000 / EUR 3 000 000) was allocated to pre-primary in Fiscal Year 2020/21. Costs are mostly still absorbed by families. These include the payment of teachers, if these are not on government payroll, and school feeding contribution, among others."}, {"bbox": [1027, 1678, 1144, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 4 of 30"}]