The Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding worth $2.5 million (Approx Rwf1.4bn) to boost technical skills.

The money will be channeled through the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) program that operates under the ministry.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Sharon Haba, highlighted that the grant would enormously contribute to the country’s development efforts.

"I would like to thank KOICA for this generous grant which will contribute greatly to Rwanda’s education efforts mainly through enhancing skills of our children,” Haba said.

According to Haba, Vision 2020 and EDPRS are all premised on embarking on science, technology and innovation capacity, through which she said, Rwanda will greatly enhance her prospects of achieving growth, poverty reduction, wealth creation and export diversification objectives.

"We recognize that science, technology and research are a cross-cutting issues and reinforcing capacity in these will help many sectors in achieving their objectives,” Haba said.
"We also recognize that innovation systems need to be encouraged at all levels to help stimulate economic growth.”

Speaking on the behalf of KOICA, Holywater S.S OH, said that the grant is one of the agency’s efforts to boost Rwanda’s education sector for the development of human capital.

"From Korea’s previous economic development experience, we realized that human resource development plays an important role in achieving sustainable socio-economic development,” Holywater said.

Through KOICA, the Koreans are also expected to dispatch experts to Rwanda to take over management of Kicukiro Technical Training Centre.

The cooperation between the two countries will also see Rwandans sent to the Asian country to enhance their technical skills.

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