The Government has said that 80 per cent of last year’s Umushyikirano resolutions are on-track while 18.2 per cent are on watch and just 1.8 per cent off-track. This was revealed yesterday by Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente at the opening of the 16th Umushyikirano. Eight resolutions, among them, improving the status of education, health, economy, and promoting Rwandan culture and values were adopted during the 2017 National Dialogue. Particularly on education, it stressed the need to take “necessarily measures and changes” to improve the quality of education, increase the number of technical schools, and fight school drop-outs. And, yesterday, Ngirente said that, the education infrastructure had improved while the number of school dropouts decreased significantly. Since 2017, some 922 classrooms have been constructed while others were rehabilitated, the Prime Minister said in his presentation, adding that 1370 cumulative number of smart classrooms were established, and 7898 teachers trained on the competency-based curriculum in just one year. Ngirente said that 257 school-based mentors have since been added to the existing 4160 mentors and 55,533 students who had previously dropped out of school returned to school. He said that 713 students in Teacher Training Centres were trained on early childhood teaching in 2018 against the target of 600, while 727 trainers were trained on skills development against the target of 500 this year. Ngirente also stated that 20 out of 30 Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programmes were accredited in 2018, among others. In regards to increasing health infrastructure, and capacity building of medical personnel, putting more efforts in fighting against epidemics, and improving service delivery, the Prime Minister said that 409 doctors are being supported by the Government to acquire specialised medical expertise, over 260,000 citizens received Hepatitis B and C screening, while 145,000 received free treatment. Over 200 health facilities have been completed of the 600 targeted in six districts across the country. The Umushyikirano 2017 resolved that there must be continued partnership between the Government and the private sector in providing more power plants which would increase access to electricity at affordable cost and improve ease of doing business. To that effect, Ngirente noted that 138, 290 households have since been connected to on-grid electricity in 2018 against the target of 115,979, while 61,546 households were connected to off-grid sources against the target of 97,142 this year. Ahead of ‘Ejo Heza’ savings scheme launch on the second day of this year’s National Dialogue (today), PM Ngirente stated that Rwf17 million is already in the coffers from 30,660 people. The savings scheme was adopted during last year’s National Dialogue as a tool to promote a savings culture among Rwandans. MP Théogène Munyangeyo told The New Times that for the savings culture to take effect, the Government must push for compulsory but reasonable savings, which he described as “saving through expenditure”. “I think the Government should find a way of pushing for a compulsory but cheap saving approach,” Munyangeyo said. He added. “For instance, if the value-added Tax (VAT) is at 18 per cent, the Government should reserve 1 per cent for the saving scheme. In so doing, they will be encouraging people to pay taxes while saving a portion of their money too.” Last year, Umushyikirano also stressed the need to sensitise more Rwandans to support Made-in-Rwanda to help create more jobs and to narrow the trade imbalance. According to Joselyne Umutoniwase, the CEO Rwanda Clothing, there’s still need for mindset change towards locally made products as this will play a key role in developing and promoting local brands. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
