Large numbers of adults have enrolled for literacy classes across the country, thanks to the strong partnership between the government, faith-based groups and other stakeholders in the education sector.

While literacy education is not new in Rwanda, it was, previously, not intrinsically linked to the country’s overall development agenda, and therefore, lacked clear goals and targets.

However, with this form of education now integrated in the national programmes with redefined targets, the project is bound to play a key part in economic development.

Beneficiaries are now confident they will make a meaningful contribution to the country’s economic development. These gallant men and women have learned from the giant strides the country has taken over the last 16 years, against all odds, and they, too, are out to prove that nothing is impossible. They represent a new mindset that now characterise the new Rwanda.

With the current illiteracy level at about 25 percent - according to the Ministry of Education - the country is well on course to surpassing the global targets under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with the national targets projected at 85 and 80 percent of literacy levels for men and women, respectively, by the end of 2011.

There cannot be a better way of empowering a previously illiterate population.

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