The Government has recruited a total of 6,405 professional teachers as part of the efforts to improve the teacher to student ratio as well as cater for the new classrooms being constructed to decongest existing ones.

This was announced by Valentine Uwamariya, the Minister of Education while addressing the media on Monday, November 16.

Among the teachers recruited 3,732 are primary school teachers while 2,673 are for secondary schools.

Recently, the teacher placement exercise saw top officials at Rwanda Education Board (REB) suspended from their duties, after they failed to co-ordinate the process.

Reported challenges included failure to deploy teachers who had, since last year, passed their entry exams, tabulation of data among others. 

However, Minister Uwamaliya allayed fears citing that teachers who were on the waiting list were prioritized among the newly-recruited teachers. 

"While placing these teachers we prioritized those who had passed their entry exams last year and also those who were on the waiting list,” she said.

Uwamaliya pointed out that the exercise ongoing and more teachers are expected to be recruited in the coming days. 

"This is phase one of this exercise. More teachers ate expected to be recruited because we still have a vacancy”. Uwamaliya added. 

Data from the Ministry of Education indicates that there is a vacancy of more than 18,005 teachers.

This is a developing story...