The pandemic affected the education sector, however, a lot of progress was made last year, which will lead to an even bigger impact if teachers, parents and students continue to work together.

Would teachers’ increased salaries and students' revised school hours - that were shifted from 7am to 8:30 am - stimulate quality education? What are people’s expectations as per enhanced education?

As a parent, and a teacher at Green Hills Academy- Nyarutarama, Sarah Kabiswa Nakiberu, anticipates having more outdoor school activities and school community outreach programmes.

She believes that such activities boost the growth of the community culture, and expectations while raising all standards.

According to Nakiberu, there is also an increased connection between learners and the community, at large. With this, learners’ output will be advantaged to know and understand societal expectations and therefore be able to compete favorably.

She looks forward to seeing learners interact with more role models from different industries who would visit schools often and encourage them into diverse fields so as to choose wisely which path to take.

"I would also love to experience more parent engagement in the education and welfare of their children. Frequent visits to the school and engaging in school activities help give a sense of purpose to learners,” she said.

The educator stressed that students' success will be higher in a variety of areas including academics, work habits, social skills, and further education if parents intentionally offer all support to their children.

Nakiberu noted that the government recently revised the start hours for school to 8:30 am, and, therefore, there is more time for building connections between children and parents.

Parents should use the morning time to have breakfast and engage with their children about what goes on in their lives as they continuously remind them of the expectations that will lead to a successful life, she noted.

According to Casimir Manirareba, a teacher at Lycée Notre-Dame de Citeaux, in Kigali, the world is rapidly changing with some good achievements in the advancement of technologies, infrastructures, and so forth. There are also negative changes such as the pandemics, climate crisis, among others. This shows that there is need to have in place some improvements in the education system so as to ensure sustainable development

For him, there should be focus on teaching learners how to find solutions to problems that society is facing.

He highlighted that Rwandan society is encountering major problems such as hunger, climate change impacts, insecurity and others. As such, he noted, the youth ought to be trained in schools on how they can create change and solutions to prevailing problems.

"We should also let our students take part in the achievements of the sustainable development goals and allow them to think critically to come up with relevant solutions. This is possible if we implement a real competence-based curriculum by heartening students to learn while practicing,” Manirareba emphasised.

He urged that, moving forward, learners should be encouraged to experiment instead of just sitting in class and waiting for teachers’ notes. "We need to have some trust in our students and make their voices heard and be responsible for their future, instead of spoon feeding them."

In addition, Manirareba noted that there should be improvement in the use of ICT, not just by theory, but by offering learners the necessary ICT tools that would enable them to expand their knowledge but also trigger them to be innovative and creative.

It starts with teachers having the training and expertise in ICT so that they can pass it on effectively to students, he said.

Due to the rapid spread of information on social media that at times misleads and frustrates the younger generation, Manirareba calls upon all stakeholders in education to put in place career guidance and counselling services for them to orient their ideas and teach them to believe in themselves.

He urged stakeholders to ensure that students and educators are fully motivated for quality learning outcomes.

For instance, by designing platforms for learners to showcase their talents and award the winners.

When it comes to teachers, Manirareba stressed, they ought to have facilities necessary to execute their work easily, and shouldn’t be piled with loads of work.

John Mary Musinguzi, the Principal of Lead International School-Kigali, said that the new year will need more hard work as the working time for schools has been reduced if classes have to start at 8:30am.

"That’s almost two lessons lost according to the usual timetable, I don’t know when international schools shall close as we shall find time to compensate for the two lessons lost.

"Considering that lessons will end a bit late, children will reach home later than usual, especially those that are dropped by school buses. However, let’s give it a try and see how the term starts,” he said.

Patience Mutoni, a senior six student at Lycée Notre-Dame de Citeaux, said that parents should spare some time and have conversations with their children.

Sometimes most students’ performances deteriorate at school as they face a lot of challenges that they could not get a chance to openly express with their parents, either because they (parents) are busy, and not observant about the children's behavior, or just don't initiate the right conversations.

She explained that some students are wasted in drugs, pornography, substance abuse, prostitution, and so forth, a thing that has triggered depression.

Mutoni is of the view that if action is not taken, many students' futures are at risk.

She also urges the government and stakeholders to make stable changes instead of making abrupt changes often. For instance, the recent change known as the competence-based curriculum which was introduced prior to preparing all teachers resulted in not bearing the targeted learning outcomes as intended.

Arnaud Shimwa, a student at Ecole privée Marie Auxilliatrice-EPMA, is excited that learners can have more morning time for sleep due to the new time table that favors them.

He explained that learners will be able to have uninterrupted morning hours to revise their notes or just to freshen their minds before the start of lessons, which wasn’t the case before.

This will be impactful to a number of students if they use their morning hours effectively, Shimwa added.

Ema Adelinda Kaliza, a student at Little Gems Academy in Kigali, looks forward to seeing teachers create a comfortable environment where learners can openly ask questions and get ample response whenever they have not understood something.

He is optimistic that, that way, students’ grades will improve, especially if more emphasis is put on science subjects.