From student support programmes, development partnerships, budgetary allocations, sector reviews and administrative appointments, among others, a lot of activities transpired within the education sector. The Education Times Solomon Asaba brings you the highlights of 2015.

Special needs school at University of Rwanda (UR)

With a seemingly slow kickoff, the University of Rwanda’s College of Education launched a school for special needs early this year.

Dr Evariste Karangwa, the school head, told The New Times that the school would address challenges that hinder the full implementation of inclusive practice.

"Between 10 and 15 per cent of our children are those with special needs and some people consider these students as unable to perform like their colleagues who do not have disabilities. This culminates into marginalisation and denial of their rights, including the right to education,” Karangwa said.

Comprehensive school feeding programme

In order to foster better academic environment, the Ministry of Education launched a comprehensive health policy for schools and strategic plan 2014-2018.

The policy includes recommended actions in eight key areas such as nutrition, sanitation and hygiene, among others.

Solange Mukayiranga, the director-general of education planning at the Ministry of Education (Mineduc), pointed out that the policy seeks to promote health of children with the involvement of communities.

"We want all development partners, district leaders and the communities, especially parents, to own the programme because it is beneficial to the students,” she said.

Also joint efforts between government and other partners were emphasised to ensure that vulnerable families could be helped so that all students benefit.

New buses for student transport

To deal with the hurdles of transporting students to school, two transport companies launched shuttle services to eliminate poor services that individual transporters offered to their children during their routine home-school travels.

This initiative started with the new academic year on January 26 and was championed by Student Safety Bus, a company specifically set up for this purpose, and Volcano Express only broadened the scope of their services.

Sam Butare, the coordinator of Kicukiro parents’ committee at Kigali Parents School told The New Times that testimonies from the students reveal that buses are efficient and much safer.

"We are encouraging other parents to follow suit because it is safer to deal with a company that exclusively deals in student transport. Our children tell us the new school buses are safer,” said Butare.

The initiative was also welcomed by Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency as a move would safeguard students.

Plans to revamp the OLPC

Meanwhile as Rwanda strengthened its position in becoming a hub for ICT, stakeholders agreed to revamp the long existing programme of One Laptop per Child (OLPC).

Despite having been crucial in enhancing critical thinking, the office of the Auditor General concluded that the project had been stained by poor management concerns and needed improvement.

Closing the gaps in the OLPC started with the drive for the new two smart classrooms concept per school.

Appointments at REB

In a related development, an extraordinary meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame appointed Janvier Ismaël Gasana as the director-general of Rwanda Education Board (REB), replacing John Rutayisire.

The Cabinet meeting also approved the Prime Minister’s Order granting a deliberate resignation from public service Isaac Nyarwaya who was advisor to the Minister of Education.

Gasana’s appointment also came at a time when beneficiaries of the 9-Year Basic Education  and 12-Year Basic Education programmes completed school, which eventually translated into an increase in the number of students who sat exams this year.

Unveiling the competence based curriculum

The long-awaited competence based curriculum was finally unveiled. The new curriculum covering pre-school, primary to secondary levels is designed to empower learners with hands-on skills to enable them fit in the global skills.

According to REB, all subjects from kindergarten to Primary Three are to be taught in Kinyarwanda as core languages of communication to enable children grasp concepts better.

Kinyarwanda as a subject was therefore provided an extra hour per week, while the number of hours will increase to eight from seven.

The new curriculum also seeks to make Mathematics more practical through demonstrations while entrepreneurship students will be trained on how they can be job creators.

In other changes, history was reviewed, and made more relevant to Rwandans with an element on the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The aim is to help children know the history of Genocide in a order to prevent a repeat of what happened in 1994.

While the current curriculum runs for 36 weeks annually, the new curriculum will run for 39 weeks in order to meet the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) standards.

Pimping up the national library

As part of efforts to promote the reading culture, partnerships between government and organisations with interests in reading and innovation were established.

For Kigali Public Library, the government signed a five-year partnership with Innovation Village, a local design and innovation company that set up an innovation hub at the rooftop of the library.

According to the Ministry of Education, the partnerships are in line with government’s vision of creating a knowledge based economy using technology as the driving force.

For the first phase of the partnership, Innovation Village introduced an art café and a culture hub at Kigali Public Library and is on course to expand their work with public libraries.

The next phase involves Innovation Village taking over the management of Kigali Public Library, supporting community libraries across the country as well as the development of a digital library that will be accessible across the country, via the community libraries, online or through mobile access.

Ban on boarding primary schools

In a directive announced by the Minister of State in Charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Olivier Rwamukwaya, the Ministry of Education took a solid stand to ban boarding primary schools within the country.

Rwamukwaya explained that the decision was meant to ensure that parents develop a culture of fostering their children closely until they are old enough to stand on their own.

"We want children to grow up in families and with their parents. Boarding schools will only start at secondary school level. Parents should know that it’s their primary responsibility to raise their children,” Rwamukwaya said.

GPE funding for MINEDUC

The Ministry of Education was set to receive a grant of $17.64 million (about Rwf12 billion), part of a $235 million package to support education in developing countries.

The funding was announced by the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) during the World Education Forum in Incheon, Korea.

The new funding brings the total funding approved by the board since 2002 to $4.35 billion as support for education in developing countries.

More $7.56 million (about Rwf5 billion) will be approved for Rwanda once an agreed indicator on equity is adopted for the results-based part of the grant.

According to this new model, 70 per cent of available country funding is based on credible, evidence-based and financially sustainable education sector plans.

German partnerships to promote TVET

With government focusing on having 60 per cent of students in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and 40 per cent in general education, new partnerships were forged between Rwanda and Germany.

The Government of Rwanda and German institutions based in Mainz, the capital of Rhineland Palatinate, signed an agreement for provision of an upgrade of skills.

Under the partnership, Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC) South receives support of technical and vocational training in machinery and spare parts production using modern technologies from ReMA, a German company.

Meanwhile, BBS, a technical school of Germersheim, supports IPRC East with different equipment and training of trainers in automotive technologies, construction and entrepreneurial skills.

Further support provided by the Technical School of Kaiserslautern and the Chamber of Crafts in the City of Koblenz will go into training of TVET masters’ trainers.

Education budget slashed

Although the 2015/2016 national budget presented mid this year saw some sectors receive more funding, that for the education sector was slashed. The budget allocation dropped by Rwf 5.1 billion to Rwf 209.3 billion (2.4 per cent) from Rwf 214.4 billion in 2014/2015. This drop left some people wondering if it won’t affect the quality of Rwanda’s education.

Ministry appointments

The Ministry of Education received a shake up after President Paul Kagame appointed Dr Papias Malimba Musafiri as the new Minister for Education, replacing Prof. Silas Lwakabamba.

Lwakabamba, 68, had been at the helm of the education ministry since July 2014, a position he assumed after serving as infrastructure minister.

Other changes in the ministry saw Dr Celestin Ntivuguruzwa appointed as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education replacing long serving Sharon Haba, who had been in the position since October 2009.

However, State minister in charge of TVET Albert Nsengiyumva was sacked in the last quarter of the year and up to now has never received a replacement.

UR graduations

At least 8000 students graduated from the University of Rwanda with degrees and diplomas in various disciplines during the institution’s second graduation ceremonies since merger.

The weeklong graduation ceremony for the six different Colleges that were merged to form the University of Rwanda at the university grounds in Gikondo, Kigali.

Some 8,178 students graduated at the varsity’s maiden graduation last year.

The student enrolment has been going up since the merger. This year, 13,354 students were admitted up from 9443 last year.

The number of girls admitted also grew to 4,536 from 2927 in 2014

Meanwhile, a total of 13,354 students were admitted out of 23,564 applications this year.

Out of the total number of admitted students, 34 per cent (4,536) are girls.

This reflects a slight increase (4 per cent) in the number of girls that were admitted last year, when 30.3 per cent (3,571) were admitted.

Lycee de Kigali celebrates 40 years

One of the oldest schools Lycée de Kigali also celebrated its 40 years’ anniversary.

The celebrations brought together parents, teachers, students and the alumni of the school.

During the celebrations, the school highlighted outstanding performance in different areas including academics and discipline, according to Martin Masabo, the school’s headmaster.

"We have worked hard to ensure that once students have completed their studies here, they leave with both discipline and knowledge that can help the community. We owe this to our dedicated staff,” Masabo said.

Boosting the school feeding programme

The School feeding program received a boost of a 5-year grant. Donations worth $25 million (Rwf19 billion), by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) McGovern-Dole was awarded to World Food Programme (WFP) Rwanda to support the national school feeding programme.

The grant was meant to benefit four districts of; Karongi, Nyamagabe, Nyaruguru and Rutsiro and is implemented by WFP in partnership with the Ministry of Education and that of agriculture.

Fixing the student loans issue

Despite government’s move to fix the issue of student loans, it came to peoples knowledge that a reasonable amount of student loans were untraceable.

Rwanda Education Board (REB) almost became unable to recover some billions of francs in student loans after failing to trace 3,635 beneficiaries.

REB director-general Ismael Janvier Gasana told The New Times that most of the untraceable defaulters were those who benefited from student loans scheme from 1984 to 1994.

However, authorities speculate that the beneficiaries could include victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, those who fled the country and others who have been committed to prison either in the country or abroad.

A new law governing university study loan was gazetted on September 15.

Unlike in the past when government disbursed the funds directly to the beneficiaries, under the new legal framework, a financial institution (currently BRD) will manage the fund, while measures have been taken to ensure that beneficiaries who have completed their education pay back their loans upon getting jobs.

Gasana said REB had so far recovered Rwf9 billion out of Rwf70 billion that was expected from 78,212 beneficiaries.

A task of recovering more than Rwf55 billion awaits BRD if only the bad debts are written off. BRD has already set up a separate office to handle these loans in Kacyiru.

Candidates for national exams

A total of 297,352 candidates are slated to sit for Primary, Ordinary Level and Advanced Level national examinations next month.

The Rwanda Education Board said that the number of candidates decreased by 2,279 from the 299,631 that of last year.

The decrease is observed in secondary school candidates, while the number grew by 3,006 (1.8 per cent) for the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) candidates.

The number of PLE candidates increased to 168,290 from 165,284 in 2014, while candidates reduced to 86,376 from 88,111 in O-Level and down to 42,686 from 46,236 in A-Level.

Umwalimu Sacco to increase its budget

The teachers’ savings and credit cooperative, Umwalimu Sacco, revealed plans to increase its 2016 budget to Rwf52.9 billion, up from Rwf49.6 billion last year.

Speaking at the cooperative’s general assembly, Joseph Museruka, the managing director, said part of the money would be spent on construction of their new building and buying new equipment.

Government to cut funding for the school feeding programmes

The Ministry of Education announced plans to support students from vulnerable families with Rwf100 each per day to meet their contribution toward the school lunch, starting the next academic year.

Addressing a news conference a week ago, Olivier Rwamukwaya, the minister of state for primary and secondary education, said the money would be deducted from the capitation grant that government has been sending to boarding secondary schools under the 12-Year Basic Education (12YBE) programme.

                                                    YOUR SAY

My highlight of 2015

Antoine Rusingizandekwe head teacher GS-EPA/St. Michael:  

Promotion of the culture of reading among students was the most outstanding initiative this academic year. Different projects and campaigns were introduced to promote the reading culture among students, for instance campaigns like ‘newspapers in education’, among others.

Jean Hakuzweyezu, teacher: Promotion of vocational training is paramount in education. Vocational education equips youth with skills and knowledge to use their creativity and abilities to create their own employment, thus fighting unemployment among youth. Thanks to the Ministry of Education for supporting this drive this year.

Cypriene Nkundimana, parent

As a parent my happiness lies in seeing my children’s knowledge and skills grow. This years’ education for my children was good and promising. They improved both academically and socially, and their grades show that the Rwandan education system is taking them to great heights.

Patrick Muhizi, senior six vacationist

Students who did their final national exams this year can testify how the academic year was fruitful. I believe a good student this year has no excuse to give for failing; the exams were in line with what we covered in class.

Valance Hafashimana, senior six vacationist

This year was a good one academically. All the policies and changes that occurred in the education calendar were favourable for our studies. I think as a student, when you do well at school that means a great improvement not only at student and school level, but at the national one as well.

Joyce Nyirabagande, parent

Nothing makes a parent happier than seeing her children enlightened, improving and growing into mature individuals. This year, Education Times not only enlightened students, but it also gave them a platform to learn different skills that improves their social life.