Premier outlines govt education sector plans

Government is committed to revamping education sector to offer quality education that can contribute to development of national economy in various sectors, the Prime Minister, Eduard Ngirente told Members of Parliament. The premier was on Friday addressing a joint session of Parliament, where he outlined the seven-year government programme for education sector. Noting that government remains committed to working toward knowledge based economy, Ngirente told lawmakers that Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses will be the priority. Government would therefore put in more efforts to avail practical materials so that more STEM schools are equipped and more students are enrolled, he said. He said that a lot has been done as literacy rate increased from 64 percent in 2000 to 72 percent in 2015. Up to 62 percent of workforce is qualified according to the premier compared to 38 percent who are not. More classrooms to be constructed He said that the number of classrooms is still low and qualified teachers inadequate making it hard to offer quality education to the Rwandans. But the government would next year construct 6627 new classrooms, rehabilitate 3814 others and train more teachers, he said. Government hopes to hire at least 18,000 qualified teachers in the next seven years, he added. The premier noted that while the government has adopted double shifts in primary schools, this affects quality of education and the new classrooms will be expected to address this challenge. In the next seven years, the prime minister said the government will construct a total of 28,665 classrooms. Only 69 percent of teachers at secondary schools are qualified. Some teachers lack professional training but have acquired experience and need training. Unqualified teachers will acquire on job training while qualified teachers will also be given refresher trainings, according to the premier. Ngirente stressed the need to create more jobs as currently, 27.7percent of university graduates are unemployed. He said the government is planning to establish an innovation fund to help graduates become more innovative and create own jobs.

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Premier outlines govt education sector plans