Teaching and Learning Materials (TLM) Development
Purpose & Promise
At Education Development Consult, we believe that quality learning starts with the right tools in the hands of both teachers and learners. The Teaching & Learning Materials (TLM) Development Department exists to bridge the gap between curriculum goals and the everyday classroom experience.
Our purpose is to create learning resources that inspire curiosity, promote inclusivity, and drive measurable learning outcomes—whether in urban schools, rural classrooms, or community learning spaces. We are committed to designing and producing materials that do more than just meet syllabus requirements; they spark imagination, encourage active participation, and make learning accessible to all children, regardless of background, ability, or language.
We promise to:
Listen to the needs of teachers and learners so that every resource we create is relevant, engaging, and practical.
Integrate evidence-based pedagogy—especially play-based and child-centered approaches—so that learning feels natural and enjoyable.
Embed inclusion and equity into every design, ensuring that children with disabilities, learners from marginalized communities, and speakers of different languages can all access and benefit from our materials.
Ensure quality and durability, producing materials that are safe for young hands, resilient in busy classrooms, and locally made to support sustainability.
Continuously innovate, blending traditional print and manipulatives with digital solutions to meet the evolving needs of education in Rwanda and across the region.
What we Do
1. Curriculum-Aligned Books (Kinyarwanda, English, French)
The Curriculum-Aligned Books produced by EDC’s TLM Development Department are carefully co-created with national education stakeholders to ensure they meet and enrich Rwanda’s competency-based curriculum for learners aged 4–9. Each title is thoughtfully designed to not only build foundational literacy and comprehension skills but also to integrate broader themes that shape well-rounded learners, including inclusive education, gender responsiveness, technology and STEM awareness, social-emotional learning, and environmental stewardship. Our current collection includes 139 high-quality titles—developed, curated, and rigorously reviewed—earning full approval from the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) for use in classrooms and community learning settings nationwide. These books are available in Kinyarwanda, English, and French, ensuring that learners across diverse linguistic backgrounds can access engaging, culturally relevant, and pedagogically sound content.
2. Manipulatives & Durable Classroom Resources
The Manipulatives & Durable Classroom Resources developed by EDC’s TLM Development Department are purposefully crafted to combine play, safety, and durability in ways that make learning both engaging and effective. Produced in our in-house atelier, these resources—such as alphabet and number puzzles, matching dots and image sets, and multi-shape dice cubes—are designed to strengthen foundational skills like letter-sound recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence, shape identification, and early problem-solving. Every piece is manufactured using child-safe, non-toxic materials with smooth, rounded edges and sturdy finishes to withstand daily use in active classrooms. By blending tactile exploration with structured activities, our manipulatives encourage repeated practice, foster fine motor development, and help learners grasp abstract concepts through concrete, hands-on experiences—all while ensuring teachers have durable, easy-to-use tools that can be integrated seamlessly into lessons.
Our Approach
Play-Based Pedagogy: Games, stories, and tasks that invite exploration and joyful practice—without losing assessment rigor.
Universal Design & Inclusion: Materials offer multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression; they are culturally responsive and disability-aware.
Curriculum First: We backward-map from national standards and classroom expectations, then design content, visuals, and manipulatives that directly target priority competencies.
Teacher-Ready: Clear instructions, low-prep setups, and step-by-step activity flows—so teachers can implement tomorrow.
Safety & Durability: Edges finished, surfaces sealed, child-safe paints/finishes, and classroom-tested joinery for repeat use. (Produced in-house using our workshop machinery and QA checks.)
Impact Highlights
EDC’s TLM Development Department has successfully developed and curated 139 curriculum-aligned titles in collaboration with key education partners, each tailored to address critical themes such as inclusion, gender equality, social-emotional learning (SEL), STEM awareness, and environmental stewardship. All titles have been rigorously reviewed and approved by the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), ensuring they meet national standards while remaining culturally relevant and engaging for learners. Complementing these titles, we have designed innovative play-based and IDELA-aligned materials that empower teachers to effectively cover all 24 subtasks across the four core early childhood education domains—Motor Development, Emergent Language & Literacy, Emergent Numeracy, and Social-Emotional Development. These resources transform classrooms into active, measurable learning environments, enabling educators to assess progress in real time while fostering joy, curiosity, and inclusivity in every learning experience
Production & Quality Assurance
In-House Atelier:
Our in-house atelier is the heart of EDC’s TLM production process, equipped with advanced banding and thickness machines, woodworking tools, precision finishing stations, and small-batch assembly lines. This setup allows us to manage every stage of production—from raw material preparation to final packaging—ensuring consistent quality, safety, and durability. Because we control the entire process under one roof, we can adapt designs quickly, customize orders to client needs, and maintain strict quality assurance protocols. The use of child-safe finishes, rounded edges, and sturdy joinery guarantees that our products are safe for young learners while being resilient enough for daily classroom use. This integrated approach not only reduces production lead times but also helps us maintain affordable costs without compromising on quality.
Teacher Field-Testing:
Before any new material is approved for mass production, it undergoes rigorous field-testing with teachers and learners in real classroom environments. We partner with experienced educators who integrate the prototypes into their lessons, providing invaluable feedback on usability, clarity, durability, and learner engagement. This hands-on testing helps us identify and address potential issues—such as unclear instructions, difficulty in handling for young children, or mismatched skill levels—before the materials are finalized. The insights gained from field-testing also enable us to refine activities to better support curriculum objectives, ensure age-appropriateness, and enhance the learning experience. This collaborative process ensures that every resource we release is not just theoretically sound but also practically effective and teacher-approved.
Standards & Approvals:
All our teaching and learning materials go through a formal review and approval process in collaboration with relevant education authorities and partners. This ensures that our books, manipulatives, and digital resources are fully aligned with national curriculum standards, pedagogical guidelines, and policy requirements. The approval process involves thorough content evaluation, language checks, and assessment of cultural relevance to guarantee that the materials are suitable for diverse classroom contexts. By securing these endorsements, we provide educators and institutions with the assurance that EDC products are not only innovative and engaging but also compliant with official education frameworks, making them a trusted choice for large-scale adoption across schools and learning programs.
Looking to co-develop or procure high-quality TLMs for your program or school network? Get in touch to request samples, a demo of our material kits, or a walkthrough of our atelier and quality process.