Many parents with school-going children, during this time of the year, have only one thing in mind; to see the end of January.

Their spirits are low and the pockets even emptier after a festive season combined with a back-to-school flurry, but they are thankful that they managed to go through the previous year.

The education sector endured a tumultuous 2019 that it will hope not to encounter any time soon, but everything is a learning curve, the important thing is to listen to criticism and reform accordingly.

One area that stakeholders need to work on is addressing complaints by graduates of the University of Rwanda who complain that it takes ages for their degree certificates to be printed thereby missing out on many opportunities.

It is an argument that has been going on for ages and it emerged that the delay was caused mainly by the fact that the certificates were being printed in Europe, in Europe; surely? Does it need rocket science to print a certificate? The University of Rwanda cannot print its own?

Most self-respecting universities even have their own printing press, not only for printing in-house documents but some also work as publishing houses. One should not be surprised that there are very few Rwandan published books yet there are plenty of manuscripts lying idle in university libraries.

The University of Rwanda should give itself that challenge; that 2020 will be the year when it breaks away from archaic methods of work, tradition obligée or not. Every year it churns out drivers of innovation, what is so difficult in keeping up with its alumni?