A shortage of qualified teachers has forced the government to continue hiring degree holders who did not necessarily study education to fill the gaps; The New Times can reveal.

Appearing on local radio stations on Wednesday night, the Deputy Director-General of the Rwanda Education Board (REB) Angelique Tusiime said that hiring non-qualified teachers is mostly motivated by the big gap between the number of teachers being produced by Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) and universities vis-à-vis what is needed in schools.

"Anyone with a degree who didn’t study education can apply but the ones who did are given priority. Those who didn’t study education will be trained but will work on contract. If a qualified teacher shows up, we are likely to replace the non-qualified one,” she said.

The debate on whether to retain non-qualified teachers has been ongoing since around 2016.

At the time, the plan was to phase out the teachers without proper qualifications and relieve them of their duties in a year if the Government attained the minimum teacher load at all levels of education.

However, by October 2019, the Ministry was issuing an ultimatum that would see the unqualified teachers relieved of their duties in two months.

Tusiime pointed out there have been challenges in getting the number of teachers to fill the gaps pointing out that in 2019, only 3000 teachers (Pre-school and Primary school) had been produced by TTCs and universities.

This, she said is coupled by the fact that only about 10 per cent of the trained teachers who sat teaching job exams last year passed.

As of this year, there were 3,000 vacant positions in primary schools but Tusiime says that the number has since gone up.

"The government is increasing the number of classrooms, some teachers are retiring and this has pushed the number of the teachers we need to 7,000. We expect this number to increase,” she said.

Continued reforms

Tusiime said that the education sector continues to undergo changes following a Presidential Order that guides the operation of Pre-School, Primary, Secondary and Technical schools.

For instance, unlike the past where districts interviewed and hired teachers, the Presidential Order included the Ministries of Education and Public Service in the process.

‘The bulk of the responsibilities obviously go to MINEDUC. However, what used to happen is that each district used to set its own exams for those interested in teaching jobs yet the students all follow the same curriculum. What happened was to standardise the exams so that they all do the same exams,” she said.

This, she explains, will cut on the amount of monetary and time resources that were put into setting different exams for sometimes the same people who are trying their luck in different districts.

The Order also helped the hiring authority to deploy teachers wherever their services are needed instead of teachers being given an opportunity to pick and choose where they can or cannot work.

Another change was on the length of the validity of the teachers’ waiting list. Tusiime explained that while teachers who had passed but could not be placed could be kept on the waiting list for only six months, the time frame has since changed to 24 months.

"This has been helpful because then when a teacher retires or is sick for a long time, you have an immediate replacement. Of course, teachers are happy about the fact that they are now all sitting the same exams countrywide,” she said.

Changes in school leadership

Tusiime also shed light on the changes in how school administrators are hired. Unlike how it has been done in the previous years, Head Teachers and their deputies will henceforth not sit for written exams.

They will instead be interviewed by a special commission set up by the ministry of education.

"A Headteacher would in the past sit exams and pass and get a job even without experience. That means that they did not have any technical school leadership skills. Today, for one to get that job, they must have taught for at least nine years,” she said.

Issues raised before

The issue of education in Rwanda took centre stage at the National Leadership Retreat in February this year.

At the retreat, the former President of the African Development Bank Dr. Donald Kaberuka, told the nation’s leaders that a country that has messed up its education can never achieve its much-needed growth.

He highlighted a case of Zimbabwe, saying if it was not for the strong education the country would have collapsed during its economic turmoil.

But, he doesn’t believe that it is necessarily about investing in universities.

"We are making a mistake if we think all people should go to university,” he said, adding that countries like Germany and Switzerland have low rates of high-school graduates who attend universities but there are more opportunities compared to the United Kingdom with high levels of college entry students.

The Minister for ICT & Innovation, Paula Ingabire highlighted that a recent study commissioned by the government to figure out the existing gaps in education in Rwanda showed disturbing revelations.

"In Rwanda, a student reads 23 words per minute on average. The global average is 60 words. A teacher in Rwanda reads only 90 words per minute compared to the global average of 120 words,” she revealed.