Editor,

I am a single parent and my son goes to one of the best secondary schools in Rwanda. I am proud of his performance and I have no doubt that he will pass with flying colors when he does his A-level exams next year.

I was, recently, lucky to be invited to a conference in the United States and in line with my job; I got to experience first hand how students are tutored. I was taken aback by the differences in how students in developed countries study compared to ours.

For instance, a student studying theatre will be expected to attend a play and review it, while the one studying journalism will be given an assignment from which he/she will file a story and report back to the class about the process they went through to get to the final bit of the story.

Whereas back home in Africa, a student only listens as a teacher goes on and on with theory after theory.

Theoretical lessons should be able to move hand in hand with practicals. Practical lessons should not be left to Science students alone but should shift to Arts students as well as a means of promoting the government’s vision of having a knowledge and skills based economy.

Teachers need to get online exposure on how other teachers in the developed countries teach and the methods that they use to help their students become better leaders and professionals.

Paul Martin Musoni
Kimironko