Senior six students on vacation are set to begin teaching illiterate residents in their respective communities how to read and write.

According to government officials, the campaign is expected to kick off towards the end of this month and will involve over 8,600 youths who will offer this service on a voluntary basis.

In an exclusive interview with The New Times yesterday, the Minister of State in charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Mathias Harebamungu, said that preparations are in high gear

"Trainers have already been trained on the national level and the necessary materials like books to facilitate in this exercise have been distributed to the districts,” said the minister.

Available statistics from the Education Ministry indicate that illiteracy rate which is mainly rampant in rural communities, currently stands at 25 percent.

Government is committed to reducing illiteracy in the country since it has been proven that there cannot be development when people cannot write and count and the students have been identified as potential players.

The Education Ministry, within the framework of the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) has set a target of having 85 percent of men and 80 percent of women literate by 2011.

Achieving this would mean that Rwanda would be in line to meet the Millennium Development Goal of cutting the illiteracy rate by half by 2015.

According to Esperance Muziganyi the official in charge of adult literacy at the ministry, the teaching will be held at the cell level where four teaching centres will be located.

The teachers will each have a teaching guide book, while one book will be used by five students.

It is estimated that about 162,000 people will have been trained under the programme by the end of December.

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