STRATEGIC: More classrooms and motivating teachers

Rwamagana - The Minister of State for Education, Mathias Harebamungu, has piased the general performance of schools under the Nine-Year Basic Education (9-YBE) Programme whose implementation kicked off in 2009.The programme offers education free of charge to students up to senior three.It was made possible by constructing additional classroom blocks at selected primary schools to ensure that students study from the same school the entire first nine years of education. The minister was presiding over a ceremony to commence a five day workshop for District and Sector Educational Officers (DEOs and SEOs) in Eastern Province yesterday. The training was organised by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) in conjunction with the Ministry of Education. The overall aim of the workshop was to streamline computerised data collection in schools.Harebamungu said that it was very important that Educational Officers learnf how to manage data in a scientific manner."Six schools in Nyagatare alone had a hundred percent performance in last year’s national exams. The same applies to other districts in the province. Therefore, we shall leave no stones unturned to assist the schools,” he said."Statistics are vital in quality assurance... the number of students, teachers, schools, class rooms, must be well computed in order to ensure quality education”.The Minister warned DEOs &SEOs on malpractices that have characterised some schools."Ghost teachers, child pregnancies and poor feeding in schools must stop forthwith. We also need to know numbers of students and schools affected...this is the bottom line of the training”. Yusuf Murangwa, Director General NISR, reiterated the need to ensure quality education.He noted that 5 per cent of the country’s GDP comes from the education sector, adding that the training was meant to give the administrators pre-requisite knowledge.Jean Paul Uzabakiriho, the SEO Mimuli Sector in Nyagatare District, said the officers were set to benefit immensely from the training.He however noted that educational officers remained with a massive transport problem."We manage sectors and districts with scattered schools...the nature of population distribution in Nyagatare District for example, is complicated. The schools are very scattered. We need at least motorcycles to move us around, we can’t walk or rely on lifts,” he said.