Quality control is the key to competitiveness

This week Education Times followed up the story of the university students who were asked to pack and leave because they had been wrongly admitted. The students in question did not possess the required two principal passes from their A level exams. This situation arose from a combination of poor policy implementation and monitoring as well as greed by some private universities who knew they were doing something wrong but did it all the same. However it is never too late to do the right thing. By stopping these students from continuing with their university studies, quality control has been effected. There is clearly no reason why someone who does not meet the requirements to be in a university should insist on being there. Education is like all other industries and it needs quality control management. You have to ensure that those who enter the university have earned the right to be there in the first place. Then you go ahead to give them the best knowledge and facilities so as to reap the best result. Failure to ensure quality control would mean that any Tom Dick and Harry can join the university, something which eventually makes the graduates less competitive. The most prestigious universities in the world are also the hardest to join.Rwanda’s education has gone through various changes in the recent years and ensuring quality is an integral part of the different education reforms. Education for all is best applied at the lower levels of the education system. At the top we need the cream, the critical mass that can drive development and innovation.