The decision by the University of Rwanda to compel over 150 students who failed the English proficiency test to repeat the academic year, points to a larger more serious issue.

English, French and Kinyarwanda are the official languages. Several years ago, the government decided that English should be the official teaching medium. Thousands of teachers from the region were recruited to help in expanding the use of English.

It does not make sense that after all these years a university student fails English, the language of instruction.

How did the particular student pass secondary school? That is the question education officials should pose.

Either way, there is something extremely wrong with our teaching methods. Placing blame squarely on the students' lapse would be unfair. The issue lies elsewhere.

Foreign languages seem to have been relegated to the lower ranks. Even today in the media, it is not rare to find graduates who can make sense. Communication skills are lacking and it is not the young persons’ doing but the nurturing.

Today many employers decry the proliferation of many half-baked graduates who are churned out annually and are not ready for the job market. The Ministry of Education should look closely in this issue as it seems to become more acute as time goes by.