Strategizing Learner Support to Scaffold Learning and Internal Efficiency in Distance Training Program for In-Service Secondary School Teachers in Rwanda

Abstract

While distance training program (DTP) was adopted to increase the rate of qualified in-service teachers in Rwandan secondary schools and upgrade their pedagogical skills, ensuring adequate learner support under this program has remained cumbersome. This paper was an attempt to explore the provision of learner support in DTP and examine how learner support can be strategized to scaffold learning and internal efficiency. The study was conducted in the academic year 2015/2016 and adopted the explanatory sequential mixed-method research design. From a target population of 1,346, stratified random and purposive sampling techniques enabled to arrive a sample 315 respondents. The findings revealed that DTP students lack adequate exposure to learning resources. The schedule of DTP activities is volatile; the staff required to assist students are either insufficient or not recruited in good time. Also, the management of DTP is obstructed by the lack of fully-owned study centers. Hence, in view of the fact that learner support is a contributing factor towards effective learning and holds a statistically positive relationship with internal efficiency, the present study suggests that the highlighted weaknesses in DTP learner support be urgently fixed. In this vein, the management of DTP is recommended to revamp its learner support system by increasing students’ access to enough and varied learning resources, hiring and training personnel in charge of students’ support, and establishing fully owned and equipped study centers across the country.