KIGALI - The Kigali Health Institute is facing a big deficit of lecturers most especially in the nursing, midwifery and mental health faculties of the institute.

Instructions from the Ministry of Education say that at least one lecturer is supposed to teach 10 students in these medical courses.

However, according to the Head of the nursing faculty at KHI Allan Rumenge, at KHI, one lecturer instructs 25 students which means that the 8 lecturers available in the nursing faculty instruct the 345 students.

Apart from having few lecturers, Rumenge says that some of the lecturers are not trained as teachers.

This phenomenon has led to the opening of a new branch called Bachelors of Nursing Education (BNE).

"In this new course, these tutors are a taught how to teach nursing because we discovered that one may have knowledge of the matter but lack the skills to transfer the knowledge to students,” said Rumenge.

The course is being taken by 25 tutors currently.
One student who preferred anonymity told The New Times that the problem of insufficient lecturers has had effects on the students who complete their studies at the institute.

"Some students finish with little knowledge in various subjects due to this problem of lack of lecturers,” said the student.

Chantal Kagabo who is charge of academics at KHI says that these problems might affect the nation in the long run because few nurses are being trained and yet many health centres around the country need their services.

Like other senior officials at the institute, Kagabo requests that something be done to rectify the problem if the institute is to produce quality graduates.

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