SomaBox Training Graduation 2026

Sixty-seven teachers have finished SomaBox training and graduated from the programme. They were trained on digital literacy and on using SomaBox in their own classrooms.

The graduation was recorded, and the full ceremony is below.

What the training covered

The programme set out to equip teachers with digital pedagogy skills and the practical knowledge to build SomaBox into everyday classroom instruction. Three things were kept in focus throughout: getting students more engaged, strengthening teaching capacity, and making classroom technology work without a connection.

Teachers following a session at the SomaBox digital pedagogy training — Teachers following a session during the training.

That last point is the one that decides whether any of this survives contact with a real school. A SomaBox holds a school's digital library and serves it to student devices over its own wireless network, so the material is there whether or not the school has internet. But a teacher still has to know how to find something in that library, fit it into a lesson, and run a class of up to 200 students on one SomaBox at the same time.

Teachers also added their own material during the sessions. Anything a teacher builds sits on their school's own SomaBox and is available across that school, which means a lesson made by one teacher can be picked up by the next.

Hands-on with classroom technology

Alongside the SomaBox sessions, participants spent time with other classroom technology, including VR headsets.

A Soma Foundation Rwanda team member helping a participant fit a VR headset during the SomaBox teacher training — A participant being fitted with a VR headset during the training.

Where this sits in the wider programme

SomaBox is now in more than 20 schools and libraries, and around 17,000 students can reach one. Every one of those sites needs teachers who are comfortable with it, which is why training runs alongside deployment rather than after it.

Organised with the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda

The training was organised by Soma Foundation Rwanda with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda, under the banner of aligning U.S. and Rwandan partners to accelerate tech-driven education. Building a digital library that suits Rwandan classrooms, and training the teachers who will use it, takes people on both sides.

The Soma Foundation Rwanda team and partners at the SomaBox teacher training — The Soma Foundation Rwanda team and partners at the training.

Support the next group

Training is the part of this work that is easiest to overlook and hardest to do without. About $87 covers training one teacher, and $450 equips one school with a SomaBox of its own. If you would like to help with either, you can read more on our Get Involved page.