KIGALI - The forthcoming East Africa Community (EAC) Education Expo will showcase the educational opportunities in the region which will help in promoting quality education.
While addressing the press on the preparations ahead of the October 1-4 exhibition, the Minister of Education, Dr. Charles Murigande, said the expo will provide a platform to the region’s citizens to learn from each other.

The first East African Education Exhibition and Conference will be held at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology campus to showcase the educational opportunities in the region which will help in promoting quality education.

"There is a lot to learn and share on education opportunities for the citizens in the region since every member state of the bloc will be having unique and fresh contributions to bring to the rest during the exhibition,” he said.

He added that the expo is timely, coming at the heels of the commencement of the East EAC Common Market Protocol that ensures free movement of services, labour and persons.

The minister underscored that Rwanda, a country growing to be the region’s ICT hub, is also expected to showcase her comparative and competitive edge in terms of education in the region.

"We decided to hold a regional education Expo which will attract several education institutions from the EAC bloc to exhibit their products in Kigali,” he noted.

Initially the education expo was on bilateral level between Rwanda and Uganda but diplomatic representations of the other EAC partner states expressed the desire to see the activity expanded to all the five member states.

"That’s why we decided to call it EAC Education Exhibition and Conference; previously it used to be called Rwanda-Uganda Exhibition and Conference Expo,” education Minister said.

"So far 67 Rwandan schools and close to 30 from Uganda, 15 from Kenya have confirmed participation. We have not yet received confirmation from Tanzania and Burundi, but we are expecting more institutions to show up”.

Lawrence Matage, an official in the Tanzanian High Commission, said that the Expo will avail to the public lots of beneficial educational materials.

Participants to the Expo will include primary schools, secondary schools, higher colleges (including TVET institutions), higher institutions of learning, companies dealing in areas that support education service delivery and education funding agencies, as well as top education officials from the ministries of the partner states.

Ends