Maximising Potential (MaxPo)
Maximising Potential, (abbreviated to MaxPo) is a formative student assessment tool which allows both students and teachers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of individual students’ academic performance, enabling students who are falling behind to be quickly identified and assisted.
This approach will help to prevent instances of students being forced to repeat academic years, an outcome which is associated with a range of negative effects, both in terms of school performance and psychological outcomes such as social and emotional distress.
The MaxPo tool will help Rwandan educators to provide support for those students experiencing particular difficulties with the potential to affect scholastic performance, such as Special Educational Learning Needs and gender-based barriers to education.
By creating a detailed picture of each student’s strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities, teachers will be able to support their students to access and make the best use of the opportunities that education affords.
As a result of the pilot of MaxPo that APIE conducted in Umubano Academy during the 2021-2024 academic year period, we now have proof of concept for the MaxPo tool.
The data for this pilot indicates significant potential to improve grades, particularly in the second year of implementation and beyond.
The data also shows significantly larger improvements for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN), who at the moment are systemically disadvantaged within the Rwandan education system, which does not have any provisions for mitigating adverse circumstances (all students must reach the same performance benchmark in order to avoid academic year repetition). Therefore, MaxPo shows significant promise as a method for increasing access to education for disadvantaged groups.