Rwanda’s Ministry of Education and the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), alongside education leaders MIT RAISE and Day of AI, concluded the first, highly successful phase of national training program to equip all primary and secondary school teachers in the nation with foundational AI literacy. The first round of training reached over 5,000 teachers across all districts of Rwanda and concluded at the end of December 2025.

This foundational training will continue through the 2025-26 school year and marks the official launch of a national initiative. The program focuses on preparing Rwanda’s teachers and the next generation of students not only to use AI tools, but to critically and ethically engage with AI’s role in society.

In July 2025, 150 master teachers, or AI champions, were trained directly by AI expert researchers from MIT RAISE and Day of AI and are now implementing cascading training to ensure AI literacy reaches every educator in the country. This work was made possible through the generous support of the Ibrahim El-Hefni Technical Training Foundation, which aims to ensure children often overlooked by traditional scholarship programs, receive equal opportunities in scientific and technical training.

Rwanda’s Visionary Commitment to AI Literacy

Rwanda’s forward-looking national strategy stands on three main pillars: readiness, relevance, and reach. This strategy is central to the country’s long-term Vision 2050 and the National Strategy for Transformation, both of which aim to rebuild the nation into a knowledge-based economy.

As highlighted by Minister of Education Joseph Nsengimana, all work integrating AI into education is in service of Rwanda’s education workforce, “AI can help teachers give more personalized attention to students and enhance their progress. It will and should be used to enhance classroom learning and support teachers, not replace them.”

MIT RAISE’s Day of AI Rwanda initiative builds on its ongoing efforts to become an African leader in AI. These efforts include the recently announced partnership between the Rwandan government, ALX, and Anthropic to bring an AI learning companion to thousands of learners and teachers.

Pioneering AI Readiness in Education

MIT’s Day of AI curriculum, developed by researchers in partnership with K-12 educators, is freely available and used in more than 170 countries. The effort in Rwanda represents the largest national rollout of the program in Africa to date and one of the largest in the world.

Professor Cynthia Breazeal, Director of the MIT RAISE Initiative, emphasized the global significance of Rwanda’s approach: “The launch of Day of AI Rwanda is not only a powerful moment for us, but a model for how nations around the world can prioritize AI readiness in education with both vision and urgency.”

Dr. Randi Williams, Global and Research Lead at Day of AI who led the July teacher trainings in Rwanda, praised the leadership of Rwanda’s Ministry of Education and REB: “This partnership is one of the most impactful, hopeful collaborations I’ve been part of. The combined enthusiasm, curiosity, and drivenness shown by the educators we’ve taught is nothing short of inspiring. Together, we’re planting the seeds of a generation that will understand, build, and lead with AI, and do so responsibly.”