After government made public the intention to recruit teachers of the English language from neighbouring countries, notably EAC member states, only 600, out of the 4000 wanted teachers have applied for the jobs.Even the 600 are subject to a screening exercise which will be conducted at Rwandan embassies, meaning the number could go down.According to the Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Mathias Harebamungu, applicants are from Uganda (450) and Kenyans are 170.Initially, it had been projected that the teachers, who are supposed to boost the country’s system of using English as the language of instruction at all levels of education, would start work by February this year.They were meant to be recruited solely from Kenya, but government decided to cast the net wider to include other countries.The aim of enlisting the services of these teachers, who, according to the minister, will have a contract of three to four years, is to help improve the proficiency in the English language of local teachers.In an exclusive interview with The New Times, Harebamungu said that the Ministry, through Rwanda Education Board (REB), has placed adverts for jobs in various newspapers within the region.The Minister said the ministry would soon send a team of officials to Rwandan High Commissions in Uganda and Kenya to make selections of those who qualify for the job among the applicants.  The low turn up of applicants has partly been attributed to the salary which is considered low.According to the Minister, those to be recruited will not exceed a monthly remuneration of Rwf200, 000, which is less than 500 US Dollars.Besides teaching the students, they will also teach their local counterparts in a "trainer of trainers” arrangement that seeks to have Rwandan teachers speak English fluently as a means of improving their competence.He said that those who will be recruited are mainly those who studied education majoring in the English subject and those who have Advanced Diploma in teaching English.The minister said that apart from recruiting English teachers from EAC member states, the ministy is planning to come up with a mechanism which will help the country have enough qualified teachers in a more sustainable manner.He said the ministry increased the hours of those studying to become teachers at Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs) from three to five hours a day where they are trained in grammar and literature skills."The ministry recently issued instructions to all primary and secondary schools to ensure that their students speak English only while at school because this will improve their spoken English which will also generally improve the quality of education in the country,” Harebamungu said. According to the ministry, 43,000 teachers have so far been trained in the English language where the first batch was trained for three months between November 2009 and January 2010.The move to have English adopted as a language of instruction began in 2008 and its use as a medium of instruction in schools was launched in 2009 during the same year when Rwanda joined the Commonwealth, which brings together English speaking nations that were colonised by Britain.In a phone interview with The New Times, yesterday, the Rwandan High Commissioner to Uganda, Frank Mugambage, said the Commission sends the applications as they come in."We (the embassy) are still sending messages through newspaper adverts across the country to make sure that we get as many applicants as possible,” Mugambage said.He said that those who have so far applied are mainly from around Kampala city and the nearby areas saying that his embassy has laid down strategies and mechanisms on how best they can reach other parts of the country for more applicantions.