Private candidates, or candidat libre as they are commonly known, are students who mainly study at their convenient time, especially in the evening.

The programme which is about to make 10 years was initiated in 1999 by one senior army officer who wished to complete his secondary education he had cut short when he joined the RPA struggle in the 1990s.

For those who have been there, the term candidat libre carries a big story. It is interesting to find many people especially adults, studying at night in a primary school classroom; the tranquility and concentration leaves one wishing to be part of the group.

One educationist once suggested that there should be an evening secondary school programme like there are evening university programmes.

Indeed it sounds a good idea especially when the country aims at education for all, only that having so many adolescents gathering every evening may require extra security.

This partly explains why adult students in the few evening secondary school private classes are performing better than their younger counterparts.

According to Augustin Ntaganda, a.k.a Karangazi, the pioneer teacher of private candidate class education, adult students perform much better compared to ordinary day secondary scholars, yet the adults have other responsibilities to attend to.

Ntaganda says this has kept the number increasing year after year from one student he taught in 1999, to over 800 students who have registered for this year’s Senior Six exams.

The student population comprising working class adults is increasing due to many reasons.

Ntaganda puts them into four categories; army and police officers, most of whom left school when they joined the struggle; adult civilians who may have left school due to lack of school fees; and senior six repeaters who are mostly pulled by the performance of the private candidates.

Another group is composed of secondary school students who study on half day programme and wish to utilise the evening hours studying in adult classes. One other group is that of Rwandans whose chance to complete secondary school education was marred by the political turmoil in the 1990s, leading to subsequent genocide in 1994.

While those in Ntaganda’s class can afford paying tuition fee for themselves, the genocide survivors cannot, thus attending classes on different arrangement yet using the same primary school premises.

Though adults, these students still feel like orphaned children especially since they were orphaned while young and forced to take on adult responsibilities.

Paul Niyonshuti is one those orphans. He dropped out of school in 1994 when he lost both parents and relatives who would have taken care of his education and instead became a young parent/guardian to his siblings.

He attended evening secondary school classes sponsored by a project called Christian Initiative on Education for Sustainable Peace and Development (CIESPD).

He was able to pass his Senior Six examinations but cannot afford private university tuition fees and other requirements.

As he waits for another Samaritan to show up, Paul is working as a volunteer accounts teacher in another special class of orphans.

However, there is talk that the ministry of Education was planning to abolish such arrangements. This has startled the students and their teachers alike, those in special class (orphans) saying they would have lost a chance of their life time.

According to a source at the ministry, the information was based on a threat of having conmen making away with students’ money after realising that the programme was attracting many clients.

The minister of Education Dr. Daphrose Gahakwa has refuted the allegations, saying that the government wants every Rwandan to access education, pointing out government’s initiation of skills training and entrepreneurship at lower secondary level.

"The government wants all Rwandans to access an education that can create jobs in future; at least after lower secondary someone should be able to do something for himself,” the minister said in an interview. Rumour or fact, Ntaganda is not bothered.

"That rumour has been there for many years. What I can say is that private candidates can never be done away with; they are adults who know what they are doing. Even if the examination council cancelled the centres, they would still register in secondary schools like it was before, but study during their convenient time and place,” he said.

"Don’t we have students taking coaching classes even today?” he asked, noting that it would only shift places but the practice is here to stay.

The only challenge Ntaganda notices with his class is inconsistence especially with soldier students who are affected by transfers and other assignments. But when they come back, Ntaganda says they still perform better.

"Many have been able to go the university and I have no regrets having ventured into the programme. We have professional teachers and we have registered an association especially to meet the high demand,” he said.

Candidat libre now has branches in Ruhengeri, Gisenyi (north) and Kibuye in the west. It organises special weekends for students to come to Kigali, while during other weekends the teachers travel upcountry and offer the services there.

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