A few months ago, I was filled with so much pride and appreciation of the military parade, when for the first time, I could fully hear and understand what was being said throughout the parade. The "simple” change was the shift to Kinyarwanda for all the commands of the parade. I know I was not alone in this excitement and appreciation.

According to the World Bank Human Capital Index 2020, a Rwandan child’s expected years of education is 6.6 years out of a possible 14 years, but only shows equivalent learning for 3.9 years. This is also despite a high Enrollment in primary school at 98.5% in 2019 and repetition rates as high as 10% at the primary school level. Out of 100 young people who start primary school, only 46 will complete secondary education, and 6 will go on to complete tertiary education, with unemployment rates higher for secondary graduates 24% vs 16% primary.

Without a doubt, there are many extensively documented barriers that lead to these sobering numbers such as quality of teaching, high student-to-teacher ratio, limited financing for infrastructure and teacher remuneration and many other challenges. A critical barrier that is not talked about and debated enough is the impact of the use of a non-native language as the medium of instruction on the learning outcomes of students and further downstream on the relevance and connection of the education received to the immediate needs of the community and the impact it has the economy.

Rwanda is a nation of 14 million people, more than 99% speak Kinyarwanda daily in all transactions, businesses, and functions. It is also estimated that more than 20 million people speak Kinyarwanda. This led me to ask myself, why is our education system’s language of instruction a foreign language that many, both teachers (less than 50% with the required English proficiency) and students, struggle to use or rarely use outside the confines of the classroom and in a few institutions across the country? While this might be a good alternative in multi-linguistic countries, this is not the case for Rwanda.

Consequences for the disconnect

When starting out in school, I was always told that A is for an Apple. I could not fathom what an apple was, because I had never seen one until I was 15 years old. This is where the disconnect starts. Learning about sounds and objects that have nothing to do with your immediate environment and reality. To pass exams, you learn to cram these objects and sounds even when they mean nothing to you, and you don’t understand what they are.

Many rural families across Rwanda have been carrying out complex biological and chemical processes for centuries, however, their wisdom and our education system are divided by a language barrier. Because there are no words for "genes” or "chromosome” in Kinyarwanda, the lessons about genetics from school are not directly discussed at home, including how it relates to the breeding methods that Rwandans have been using and what can be improved based on what the student is learning. We are therefore not able to capture, harness, and improve on the knowledge of our ancestors, knowledge and ideas that have been passed on from generation to generation.

It is obviously possible to translate this knowledge from English to Kinyarwanda or vice versa, but this creates an artificial barrier to the flow of information and ideas from the everyday interactions and environment that Rwandans are interacting with. It also adds a barrier to knowledge creation, excluding the ordinary Rwandan from intellectual contributions and discussions, because they occur mainly in a foreign language.

Interestingly, even students who have studied all their lives in English, are still requested to sit for English proficiency tests when they want to go to universities abroad. Also, there are many examples of Rwandan students who go to South Korea, Russia, Germany and China studying and passing highly in the national languages of the host countries, having only learned the language for one year.

If being a skilled and excellent carpenter, plumber, electrician, coder, problem solver, or critical thinker does not need to be a good English speaker, then why can’t we have this knowledge transmitted in a language that is most accessible? What would it take to have a fully-fledged Polytechnique or University to entirely operate in Kinyarwanda? If not, why?

It is therefore not surprising that the top 30 countries ranked highly in the Global Innovation Index and Human Capital Index operate their education systems in their native languages. This includes small countries that are globally competitive and have small populations. Therefore, this removes the argument about the need for a foreign language because of our size and need to integrate into the global economy.

Unless we imagine that Rwanda will have English as its first language in the near future, we will continue to have crises within our education system because of a fundamental disconnect between the people's everyday lives and the language of instruction of the system that is meant to nurture and develop them and society.

Importantly, with the advancement of Artificial Intelligence, mastering a foreign language will no longer be much of an advantage. Thus, ensuring that foundational knowledge is transmitted successfully and indigenous knowledge is leveraged and embedded in the country’s knowledge system, is critical for the future of Rwanda’s competitiveness.

Looking within to compete globally

Over the years, we have learned that looking inward for solutions is more sustainable and impactful than looking outward for new solutions.

In fact, the Gacaca courts, which saved the country hundreds of millions of dollars and many decades of work to deliver much-needed justice and address genocide-related cases, are a great example of looking within us and who we are for solutions that work for our context. Umuganda, Gira Inka, and many others are practical examples of how our ways of living and knowing can help us solve some of the largest challenges that face us and be leaders in this space.

In fact, countries like South Korea, Estonia, Germany, Norway, Japan, China, and others utilize their languages and cultures as key drivers of their competitiveness globally. Given that language is the carrier and transmitter of knowledge, ideas, wisdom, identity, and culture, it uniquely positions one to contribute to the world in one's unique way, embracing it is an advantage.

What can be done?

Without a doubt, a language that does not grow dies. Therefore, creating a stronger backbone of Kinyarwanda documentation, that enables the creation of new words and ease of referencing for existing words is critical. A vivid example of this is a recent conversation on an online platform where people wanted to know what a tiger is called in Kinyarwanda. In the current state, there is no official reference for Kinyarwanda words and definitions. This needs to change to provide the foundation on which scientific knowledge in other languages can be built and updated as new words and technologies are created.

From a legislative perspective, a tough choice needs to be made to embrace Kinyarwanda as a national asset. This would require creating a system that provides the basic level of education in Kinyarwanda, allowing an early understanding of key concepts and principles and switching to a foreign language later on. There is a need to elevate Kinyarwanda as a mandatory subject throughout all levels, with increased dedicated hours, such that every graduate is fluent in written and spoken Kinyarwanda.

Enabling certain programs to be offered fully in Kinyarwanda will be important, especially in programs/courses that are more technical and require less use of language. Some of the advantages for this include a likely increase in innovations of products and services solving local challenges, reduction in unemployment, and increase in education completion rates; while downsides include; short-term instability due to shift in the system, but creating a foundation for many years to come.

The consequences of keeping the current state are a price too high to pay, with the potential likelihood of Kinyarwanda going extinct within the next few generations.

As we work towards vision 2050 and beyond, it will be necessary that we build from a place of strength, our shared language and culture, to advance the well-being of our population and unlock the potential of the 90% currently left behind at the secondary and primary levels to be able to compete globally.

The irony is not lost on me that this article is in English. I am a product of 20 years of schooling entirely in English, and I struggle to write in Kinyarwanda. This confirms my fears that if nothing is done to revitalize Kinyarwanda and have it play a central role in our knowledge ecosystem, our language will slowly die from generation to generation, and so will our identity as a people.

The author is a youth development practitioner.