PARLIAMENT - The  Senate’s standing committee on social affairs and human rights has summoned the Minister of Education Dr. Daphrose Gahakwa to explain her position on a Rwf1bn debt owed to several universities.

The debt was one of the issues raised in the commission’s report on the ministry’s failure to improve the state of learning in the country.

"We discovered that the government owes universities close to Rwf1 billion and this is a result of the Ministry of Labor and the Students Financing Agency (SFAR) that have not taken care of the scholarships which were offered to former public servants who were fired on grounds of not being qualified,” the commission’s chairperson Agnes Kayijire said.

The report that highlighted the state of country’s education sector was presented to the Senate yesterday.  

Part of the report indicates that there is no clear policy to encourage investment in the education sector. It also castigated the ministry for failing to regulate the number of mushrooming private schools.

The report also pinned the ministry on the lack of coordination between the ministry and universities and the lack of classrooms that makes some school children pursue their education under trees.

Last year the ministry had promised parliament that by mid this year there will be no more pupils studying under trees but the problem still persists in some parts of the Eastern Province.

Other issues in the report include a big number of school drop outs after completing elementary education of nine years, lack of English textbooks yet lessons are conducted in thevlanguiage, and salary differences among university lecturers among others.

Senator Rwigamba Balinda who represents high institutions of learning in the house strongly condemned the ministry for creating a big gap between the ministry, schools and universities.

"There is no partnership, cooperation and collaboration with the ministry at all. Someone spends six month trying to secure an appointment in the ministry, this shows that the ministry has no will to solve this problem,” said the frustrated Balinda who is also the founder of Kigali Independent University (ULK).

He was backed by Senator Beatrice Mukabaranga who called for the revision of the education policy saying that educationists are less valued on the labour market which discourages many people from taking up the profession.

The report also states that the implementation of quality education still faces problems since school still lack equipment for science lessons.

The date of the minister’s appearance before the plenary has not yet been set.  

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