This week Rwanda is hosting a high level international seminar on curricula development. This country is just rebuilding from ruins, and so it is imperative that since human resource is the most valuable asset we have but is in very short supply, education policies, which are the vehicle to getting what we want in human resource terms, should be clearly stipulated. It would be good to mould an education system that will not land us into the same pitfalls that many a newly independent African nation has fallen into, to wit: having an education system that just nurtures job seekers, other than job makers. It is not enough to have good primary school registration figures; a conscious effort should also be made to align the system to produce people who can become self-sustaining after a certain level of education. There is already an institution that could be taken as a model - the Nelson Mandela Education Centre in Bugesera that President Paul Kagame opened recently. Rwanda can use as many vocational schools as possible. Kenya’s ruling the region in terms of vocational skills arose out of the fact that much as University education was being sought, there was an equally powerful move towards establishing vocational and technical guilds, that currently have a massive role in that country’s economic and industrial development. So when Rwandans meet their counterparts from around the world to discuss curricula, these are pertinent issues to raise and see whether it is all important to develop such courses that can only lead us to white-collar jobs. The Rwandan leadership is determined to do things in a special manner that achieves the best results for the citizens. Relevant education policies should be part of the special agenda to create something from nothing as Rwanda is always doing, which can be looked at with admiration, and wished to be replicated elsewhere in Africa. Ends
