After completing secondary level education in 1989, Jules Gakwaya, now a truck driver, was unable to pursue higher education.

"We didn’t have a variety of institutions to try our luck. I remember there was only one university, UNR (National University of Rwanda), and admission to the institution was the preserve of the few privileged people,” Gakwaya says.

The 41-year-old says; "Admissions were based on the tribe of the student. We (students) used to present our cards and wait to be admitted, only to be told that we were not smart enough.

"I realised that education was no longer possible for me, so I started a career as a driver. I am grateful that I got something to do at least, because I know that some of my colleagues who encountered similar obstacles didn’t get as lucky as I am today. It is possible that they engaged in disastrous habits to make ends meet.”

Today, every child has the right to access quality education, however, before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, thousands of students were locked out of higher learning education institutions as a result of bad governance and fewer learning facilities.

Girls, children with disabilities, those from minority groups and children living in poor and remote areas were most often denied access to the institutions.

"This has had far-reaching consequences on their future and those of their families as well as communities,” asserts Irene Ndayambaje, Director-General of Rwanda Education Board (REB).

Building the sector

Dr Rose Mukankomeje, the Executive Director of the Higher Education Council (HEC), says the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi completely destroyed the country.

She says that reconstruction of the country required skilled and knowledgeable people, young graduates from every society in the country, and there was a need to promote equal opportunities for all students.

"After the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, there was a huge need to rehabilitate the existing buildings (former University of Rwanda) and initiate other institutions, such as the former Kigali Institute for Science and Technology, to train technicians/scientists) (KIST), Kigali Health Institute (KHI) for health workers, among others,” Mukankomeje says.

Additionally, "The government allowed the private sector to open higher learning institutions in order to increase the number of graduates to respond to country needs.”

Mukankomeje points out that the number of students in higher education greatly increased.

"We have around 29 higher learning institutions, two are public and 27 are private.”

Beyond the numbers, ensuring quality education

Speaking to The New Times, Lonzen Rugira, an education analyst, says that education is a political issue, "because it is the basis of a meritocratic society and for upward social mobility.

"So access to greater numbers should be considered a success in political terms.”

However, Rugira says that from a pedagogical perspective, the quality of education matters more than the quantity.

So the question is; how do we turn that success from quantity to quality in order to fulfil both political and pedagogical concerns?

"Students are going to university to get a degree rather than an education. This is the problem of accreditation that must end, so we can start educating students,” Rugira says, adding, "There’s a need for soul searching as a society to think deeply about how much we value education.”

Mukankomeje also says that during the accreditation process of any higher learning institution, her institution checks on the infrastructures put in place in relation to the subject they are trying to teach.

For instance, "If you want to teach sciences, you need laboratories and the related equipment. If they do not have it, we do not approve the opening until you do,” she says.

International institutions

Nathalie Munyampenda, CEO at Kepler, points out that opening of international/pan-African universities like Carnegie Melon University (CMU), African Leadership University (ALU), AIMS and home-grown higher education institutions running international programmes like Kepler, UGHE, RICA, boost the conducive environment that the country provides.

"The important thing is the focus on providing greater access and quality to students. Obviously, our different organisations have niche offerings and this is good for students,” Munyampenda says.

"We focus on a strong foundational programme that emphasises ICT, communications, entrepreneurship, and other life skills before they begin their degree to improve employment outcomes. Other universities focus on computer engineering or mathematical sciences. This provides so many opportunities for students to choose what they want.”

This, she says, "opens up new career possibilities/paths to students.”

The challenge obviously is cost, and with Covid-19, all higher education institutions need to rethink business models to make sure they can operate and provide quality education.

"We focus on employability and over 95% of our graduates are employed before graduation. We also focus on vulnerable students and refugees. Different schools have different missions,” Munyampenda says.

She adds, "My hope is that the advent of international like programmes will support the growth of quality higher education so that parents do not have to send their kids outside of Rwanda. They can find what they need here.”

Mukankomeje shares the same sentiments, "One good policy that has boosted quality education is opening doors to private institutions, some of which are local and others international.”

Education sector policy analyst, Frank Shumbusho, says that some of the policies put in place in order to attain quality education still sound more like slogans rather than how they should actually be implemented.

For example, he says, time-to-time shifts of the languages of instructions, from the adoption of French, to shifting to English, then shortly Kinyarwanda, and back to English and French indicates policy inconsistency.

"I think ‘academically’ transitioning from Francophone to Anglophone was a strategic decision, but because it was made without the proper technical preparation in place, mostly within the higher learning institution systems, the outcome to date hasn’t been that encouraging, given that making that shift would require a country to first have revised its curriculums massively and efficiently trained its teachers, while availing enough modern tools such as books both to teachers and students,” Shumbusho says.

"Authorities have been internalising our education sector so much that almost no other stakeholders are fully involved,” Shumbusho says. "This sector has experienced the biggest turnover in recent years.”

Shumbusho believes that revamping the sector comes as a result of "lack of a clear road map and terms of references (of sector officials) and insufficient investment in the sector.”