The British Council has begun a 15-month pilot programme for teaching standard international English language and management skills courses in Rwanda.

The council’s East and West African regional English Professional Development Manager, Tom Hinton, said the programme lessons will be conducted from Rwanda Institute of Administration and Management (RIAM) in Kigali.

RIAM Director General, Mark Kabandana, said yesterday that his institution has been tasked by the government to offer premises to help the council deliver its intended services initially to civil servants.

"We are obliged to do that since it’s our field of competence to forefront any effort meant for capacity building of Rwanda,” Kabandana said.

The launch of the programme was attended by the UK Ambassador to Rwanda, Jeremy Macadie, and presided over by the State Minister for Regional Cooperation, Rosemary Museminari. Museminari said the programme will link-up Rwandan schools with their UK counterparts in English subjects and also help "train our teachers and other members of the society in leadership skills.”  

The programme’s immediate focus is civil servants.
Hilton said the council will partly charge government ministries for the courses to generate income which will later fund a teacher training programme in the country.

The programme’s inauguration in Rwanda extends British Council’s African coverage to 21 countries.  The launch follows the August pact signed between the government and UK Embassy in Kigali.  Rwanda’s aspiration to join the Commonwealth is cited as among the reasons for the success of British Council programme here.
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