Rubavu to fight language barriers in schools

NORTHEN PROVINCE RUBAVU—vice-mayor in charge of welfare Jacqueline Bakunduseruye has said the district together and Ministry of Education will do “everything possible” to promote the three official languages of Rwanda in all primary and secondary schools in the district. Speaking during a student language competition at Rubavu cultural centre, Bakunduseruye said that multilingualism was a key to unlocking knowledge, information, and success. “We happen to be a nation that speaks one local language [Kinyarwanda] which we use in our daily life,” said Bakunduseruye. “This has therefore affected and reduced out efforts to perfect the other two official languages.” According to Mediatrice Mungaye an officer from the Ministry of Education, the continuous competitions and awards would serve to encourage students to concentrate on studies and multilingualism. The mayor called upon parents to motivate their children by buying them textbooks and other literature in both English and French. She also called upon teachers to work hard towards the provision of quality education to children. “You should do your best to help students perfect the official languages because our government’s good international relations and its current integration with other countries such as the East African Community requires us to produce the best students.” Female students must work especially hard to find equal footing in education with male counterparts. “It is unfortunate to see that most participants and winners in these inter-school competitions were boys,” she said. The categories included best in debating, writing, and reading. In English language Jean Claude Habamungu became the best in English while Umutoniwase became the best in French language. Three out of nine finalists were women. Organizers and head teachers were thanked for their support, and many more were called upon to continue the trend of education in the region and country as a whole. Rubavu district has 67 primary and 25 secondary schools, all of which participated at the sector levels in the language competition. Ends