The recently launched school curriculum will ensure that students become independent learners thereby reducing their overreliance on teachers, experts in the field have said.

The new curriculum was launched in April.

It has been hailed as competency-based owing to the fact that it allows students to maximise their potential with the teacher playing the role of facilitator.

Officials at the Rwanda Education Board (REB) say the move will ultimately help tackle the issue of unemployment, citing emphasis on career guidance and hands-on skills as opposed to theoretical learning.

The implementation of the new curriculum, to kick off next January, will begin with kindergarten, Primary One and Four, as well as Senior One and Four with subsequent adjustments in national examinations due in 2018. 

Julien Kavaruganda, the Chief Executive Officer of Jobs in Rwanda, a local employment agency, says the problem with the old curriculum is that it did not put emphasis on career guidance, which resulted in many students taking up courses that were not responsive to the needs of the labour market.

This, he says, haunts them later when they graduate as they hardly find job vacancies that suit their qualifications.

"We need well-educated and qualified graduates to respond to the challenges of the time,” he said, adding it was also necessary that students are availed with internship and industry attachment opportunities.

He also spoke of the importance of career guidance early on in one’s education path.

The curriculum promotes a practical teaching approach, as opposed to the old one which was largely theory-based.

Under the new arrangement, the teacher’s role is to guide and facilitate learners who are offered space to think independently and critically, conduct more research, and practice in and out of the class room. Experts say the new teaching methodology requires teachers to adopt a new way to plan and deliver lessons. 

The Director General of Rwanda Education Board, Janvier Ismael Gasana, says of the new curriculum: "There are practical activities set to complement every subject. Learners that study arts and humanities, for instance, will be required to visit museums and other cultural heritage sites and this will give them necessary exposure”.

There have been growing calls for training instuitutions to regularly liaise with the industry to be able to appreciate its needs and respond accordingly – in terms of scope and content of subjects taught in school.

Kavaruganda also says there is need for regular interaction between learners and employers to try to bridge the gap that exists between the classroom and the workplace. "That would guide learners as to which subjects they may want to pursue given the realities on the job market before it’s too late.”

Highlighting the weaknesses of the curricular that’s being phased out, Mary Asiimwe, the Human Resources and Corporate Affairs General Manager at MTN Rwanda, said companies usually have to incur extra costs in training fresh graduates.

According to a recent report by Kigali Employment Service Centre, unemployment in Rwanda is partly linked to lack of work experience, inadequate or lack of jobs in the field of study, and limited skills.

An estimated 125,000 graduates join the job market every year.

REB is currently training 90 teachers who will, in turn, train others on the new competency-based teaching approach. 

The new national curriculum also includes entrepreneurship syllabus for Advanced Secondary Level, which will see model entrepreneurs and executives regularly invited to schools to share their experiences to inspire learners.

It is also hoped that these linkages with the industry will allow students to easily find internships.

"Rwanda has opportunities which young people need to detect,” says Gasana.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw