Education reform a necessity

Editor, RE: “MPs reject education commission report” (The New Times, February 23). You learn mostly by making mistakes, so they say. I would like to congratulate the lawmakers in pointing out the mistakes the standing committee on education made. This is not to say that drama be made out of their mistakes, but rather they should learn that we Rwandans are committed to transform our education sector. Education is crucial in the sustainable development of any nation. Issues faced by this sector should always be the “elephant in the room”, as it should be for any nation that wants its people to be competitive in the global economy. Sugar coating reports on education, ignoring issues faced by the players in the sector will not make those issues go away. I am very proud of the MPs who have done a great job of sending back the committee to work on challenges in the education sector. Teacher training (the quality of our current and future teachers) is to be looked into; remuneration packages, schools’ capacity to house and deliver curricula to students assessed; focus on quality education …should be looked into and reported on honestly. Our education sector needs to fit into Vision 2050 Master Plan, be candid about the challenges and develop or allocate all the resources it needs, starting with quality human resources attraction, training, and retention in the education sector—surely challenging but, a must and very exciting!

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Education reform a necessity