A study conducted by the Public Service Commission (PSC) has revealed the existing gap between what is taught at Rwandan institutions of higher learning and the labour market needs.

The report, released on Wednesday at the PSC offices in Kiyovu, outlines several courses that are not offered at local tertiary institutions and yet these skills are highly needed in current development trend of the country.

Some of these missing courses are urban planning, chemical engineering, mining and geology, according to the report, which was compiled based on the data collected from all public and private institutions of higher learning in the country.

Reacting to the findings, Angelina Muganza, the Executive Secretary of PSC, decried the situation, adding that the country turns to expatriates because of the shortage of some critical skills.

She described as "irrelevant” some of the courses our tertiary institutions continue to offer considering the demands of the job market.

Muganza said that in the recent past her institution advertised a job for a medical economist and received no single application.

Dr. Peter Butera Bazimya the Director of Research, Monitoring/Evaluation and Advisory Services at PSC, called for close partnership between tertiary institutions and the private sector to ensure that students get quality and relevant Rwandans.

He called for the scrapping of irrelevant courses from education programmes.

The report indicate that a total of 28,614 Rwandans graduated at diploma, graduate and post-graduate levels, from all Rwandan tertiary institutions between 1962 and 2008. Of these, women are 10302, constituting 36 percent of the total figure.

Management courses accounted for the biggest number of graduates, numbering 7122 in total, out of whom are 2927 women. Law, Sociology and Science and Technology follow with 3810, 3049 and 2942 graduates, respectively.

The faculty with the least number of graduates is Public Health with 155 graduates, out of whom 45 are women. Up to 811 graduates completed in Medicine, while 270 (42 women) graduated in Communication and Journalism over the same period of time, according to the report.

Overall, about 2000 students graduated in Rwanda before the 1994 Genocide.
Present at the function included representatives of the Ministry of Education, institutions of higher learning and the Gender Monitoring Office.

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