KIGALI - The Ministry of Education is short of 3,185 new classrooms needed to successfully implement the 2010 nine year-basic education programme.

Last week, State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary said Ministry of Finance had provided Rwf 9 billion in the construction of new classrooms for the new programme instead of the Rwf47 billion that Mineduc had requested for.

This, according to Mutsindashyaka, would mean need to work with local communities around the country to help these schools acquire the classrooms.

"The budget we have cannot be enough to construct all the needed classrooms, so every body’s efforts are needed in making this a success,” said the minister.

The nine-year basic education programme that kicked off this academic year obliges different primary schools across the country to have a secondary section of up to Senior Three.

Statistics from the Ministry of Education show that in addition to the current infrastructure in place, Kigali City needs 194 more classrooms and 944 rest rooms; the Western province needs 717 classrooms and 1,746 rest rooms, the Northern Province needs 642 classrooms and 2,710 rest rooms.

Eastern Province needs 642 classrooms and 2, 747 rest rooms while the Southern Province needs 726 classrooms and 2,439 rest rooms.

In a related development, the construction of the classrooms that is expected to be finalised by December this year was kicked-off on Friday in Kamonyi district.

The representative from the Ministry, Samuel Dusengimana, who presided over the ground breaking of the construction, said that the district was selected for the kick-off exercise due to the motivation expressed by locals in helping put up the classrooms.

"The will by the people of this district to help the government in the construction of the classrooms shows their craving spirit to develop the country,” said Dusengimana.

Ends