US Education Secretary extols President Kagame on education

VILLAGE URUGWIRO - The visiting United States Secretary of Education has praised President Paul Kagame’s efforts to promote education in the country. Margaret Spellings, who is in the country to open a four-day high level summit that brings together leaders of institutions of higher learning, said this after paying a courtesy call on the President at Village Urugwiro yesterday. “He is a tremendous thinker and leader in education…his effort to expand science and technology and English will put Rwanda on a cutting edge of the global workplace,” she said after her meeting with the President. The government recently ordered the introduction of English as the language of instruction in all government affiliated schools, an effort he said, would make Rwandans more competitive and relevant on the global labour market. Spellings added that having all Rwandans in school will create employment opportunities to all citizens which will in turn ensure a bright future for the country. The summit which she opened yesterday afternoon is a follow up of a similar one that took place in the United States in April and was opened by President Kagame. “During the Summit, we shall be finding capacity for African universities through the very many US universities represented here,” she said. Called the Africa Regional Higher Education Summit, this gathering has attracted representatives from over 200 universities across the globe. According to the leader of the Rwanda national organizing team and National University of Rwanda Rector, Prof. Silas Lwakabamba, the summit will hinge on improving capacity to African universities for global competitiveness. Rwanda’s Minister of Education, Dr. Daphrose Gahakwa, who also attended Spellings’ meeting with the President said that the country and the US are enjoying a good relationship in the education sector. She said that the Summit will enable the 15 Rwandan Higher Learning Institutions to create networks with other universities which will subsequently improve the quality of their services. “From this summit, we shall be looking at the curriculums of the different institutions and we shall be sharing information on how to better our academic services,” Gahakwa said. She added that this is the first meeting of its kind to take place in Africa. Some of the topics to be discussed at the summit include the development of Information Communication Technology (ICT), linking basic and higher education, food security and economic growth. Prior to her meeting with the President, Spellings, who arrived in the country yesterday, visited the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Centre. Ends