The Minister of Education Eugene Mutimura has promised to follow up on the schools that don’t pay teachers for a long time.

Mutimura made the comments yesterday during the national celebrations of the international teachers’ day that was held in Kamonyi district.

The minister’s comments were in response to a claim made by Faustin Nkotanyi, the General Secretary of the Private School Teachers Trade Union who said that some private schools take months without paying their teachers, as well as being reluctant to give them long term contracts – something that hinders them from getting long term loans from financial institutions.

"When private schools don't pay teachers, they do a bad thing. We shall work together with different government institutions and district administrations so that we follow up and remind these schools to pay teachers as they have to be paid,” Mutimura said.

This paper reported of cases where employees of various private universities across the country expressed frustration over delayed salaries, saying it’s hurting their livelihood and affecting their ability to teach.

In an interview with Sunday Times, Mutimura sounded a reminder to private schools that they are still accountable to government and they should do what the right thing.

"Private educational institutions are also under the government direction, because they teach Rwandan children. It’s not understandable how teachers do their work and they don’t get paid for a long time,” he said.

Mutimura also highlighted other changes that the Ministry will be undertaking in the future, among which he hinted on the efforts to cut the teacher student ration to one teacher to 46 students per classroom by 2024.

The student teacher ratio was estimated at around 1 teacher to 57 students in 2017.

"We have a program of making many changes in the education sector. Among these, we plan to increase the number and quality of teachers as well as build more classrooms for students so that we cut the teacher students ratio,” he said.

Stephanie Mukangango the Head of the Public School Teachers Trade Union said that congestion in classrooms is still a challenge but commended government efforts to deal with the problem.

Mukangango called unto teachers to love their students, fight drug abuse in schools, and make efforts to roll back school dropout rates.

Held annually on 5 October since 1994, the World Teachers’ Day is celebrated to honor teachers and teacher organizations. It also serves to remind them their rights and responsibilities and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com