The world celebrated Teachers Day yesterday, and the message everywhere was that one can appreciate the teachers’ role in society only by improving their working conditions. It is only then that quality service will be rendered to the world’s pupils, and level the social strata for a great many. Rwanda is not any different from world society in wanting the best for her teachers. It is only that unlike the rest, it is encumbered by a multitude of pressures, just coming out of the furnace as it has. But it is this very new-world-just-born status that can make her want to do things right first time, and maintain a good record at that. Thus we need to have a very vibrant education sector, because the alpha and omega of our human resource woes have education as our only permanent remedy. It was because of the lack of this important resource that the government imported some science teachers from Kenya last year to address the lack; but at their expensive pay rates out of reach to the local teachers, how many could be brought to address the general lack? Only a few. To cover very few schools. So it comes back to remuneration. Instead of teachers skipping their own classes, students taking up language divisions in protests, or administrators suspending 40 students for skipping one day of school, as appeared in the Thursday issue of this newspaper, the ministry of Education must find a way to make teaching and learning a more enjoyable, inclusive and egalitarian service. That is, after all, what it is, a service as well as an investment in the people of the country. Rwanda’s leaders should therefore revolutionalise education by paying competitive rates, that will attract all grades of educators to Rwanda, to our permanent benefit. Ends
