Teachers in high schools, especially in rural areas, have raised concerns over inadequate smart classrooms so as to digitise education.

The request was made by some schools located in Rutsiro and Rubavu districts from Western Province which The New Times visited.

In Rutsiro District, for example, there are 1, 446 students at GS Cyivugiza but with only 295 laptops for primary and secondary school.

The whole district has only 35 smart classrooms in 61 high schools.

Leody Akarikumutima, an ICT teacher at GS Cyivugiza, said that there are only two schools with smart classrooms in the entire sector in Rutsiro district.

"In fact, it is not easy to teach or learn ICT theoretically. For us, we use images and internet search because we have some laptops. But for other schools, it is a big challenge without laptops,” she said.

She requested the government to scale up the ‘One Laptop per Teacher’ program and distribute more to students, too.

This means distribution of laptops to teachers should go along with increasing smart classrooms where students are also equipped, teachers said.

Lack of smart classrooms is also a problem raised at St Martin Gisenyi TVET School in Rubavu District, where students do not get access to the internet.

Adolphe Niyoyita, the Deputy School Manager in charge of studies, said there are 235 trainees of whom some are doing Software Development as a trade.

He said that they are facing both internet connectivity issues and lack of smart classrooms.

"We do not have enough laptops because there are not enough smart classrooms. We made recommendations to the dissolved WDA and to Rwanda TVET Board which replaced it. We need smart classrooms at our school to facilitate what we teach as trades,” he said.

Students who spoke to The New Times also raised concerns over the lack of internet at their schools.

They said they can either access the internet from nearby places such as hotels or use their own bundles when they get back home, for those whose parents are financially stable.

"Not all parents can afford bundles for their children to use the internet, yet we have to use the internet to do research for us who are doing ICT courses,” said one of the students studying Software Application.

Esther Mutoni, another student, made a case for smart classrooms with internet facilities adding that many students in rural areas and poor families can’t afford the cost of internet bundles.

Budget constraint, lack of electricity

Christine Niyizamwiyitira, Head of ICT in the Education Department at Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), admits that the smart classroom program is still facing some challenges explaining there are still a lot of schools without smart classrooms due to financial constraints in the national budget.

She however stressed that the initiative for one laptop per teacher and establishment of smart classrooms in secondary schools are the centre of education policy.

"It’s a good initiative for teachers to get laptops and schools to have smart classrooms. We have realised that digital literacy has increased for those with ICT facilities as students are curious about learning more about ICT, "She said in an interview with The New Times.

Currently REB says the program for establishing smart classrooms in high schools is at 47 percent far from the target for reaching 88.3 percent by 2024, according to NST1.

One of the main challenges hindering the scaling up of smart classrooms, she said, is that there are still schools with no electricity and not even having access to off grid energy.

According to Niyizamwiyitira, there are currently 182 schools which have requested equipment for establishing smart classrooms across the country.

There are, meanwhile, over 15,000 laptops that have been distributed in the ‘One Laptop per Teacher’ program.