Why schools should have career guidance

After the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the Rwandan government realised that students’ lives get complex day by day. It was also noted that students need career guidance and counselling in order to achieve optimum gains in their varied life situations. According to the government of Rwanda, the programme would help students in secondary schools to see a variety of available academic options that would help them to learn through their preferred learning styles, and be helped to find how to develop plans to reach their educational and occupational goals. A teacher guides a student in class. (Internet photo ) With the 2009 education reform in Rwanda, the Ministry of Education through Rwanda Education Board (REB) commissioned Kudar Group Unlimited and LLC (an American International Career Guidance Specialist Group) to implement an organized set of specialized career guidance services established as an integral part of the school environment designed to promote the development of students. The American Group opened its doors in Rwanda at the Ministry of Education in July 2014; and started doing survey analysis in 10 selected secondary schools throughout the country to find out career guidance programme needs assessment; as a tool to facilitate teacher counsellors training. The 10 schools will first become the training centers for 90 pilot secondary schools at the beginning, and later the 90 secondary schools used as the training centers for teachers from the rest of secondary schools around the country. In the educational profession, the programme is expected to assist individuals and groups of students become familiar with facts about themselves through discovering and developing their educational, vocational and psychological potentialities, thus achieving an optimal level of personal happiness and social usefulness. The programme implementation process is also expected to play a vital role in education setting by identifying potential students’ barriers to learning. This means the teacher counselors will be prompted to help students overcome their problems, associate their transition from education to work, or transition into higher education and further career opportunities. Career guidance systems in secondary schools in Rwanda, will also enable the government of Rwanda to target well trained human resource needed for the national development purposes. The writer is a career guidance expert and works with Rwanda Education Board