Govt merges more institutions

Five major agencies under the Ministry of Education will soon come under one roof with a single management under an agency to be called the Rwanda Education Board (REB). The resolution which comes after the merging of seven parastatals to form the now operational Rwanda Development Board (RDB), was made by a cabinet meeting that convened last Wednesday. The agencies to be merged are: National Curriculum Development Centre, Teacher Service Commission, General Inspectorate, National Examination Council and Student Financing Agency of Rwanda (SFAR). According to resolutions of the Cabinet meeting held last Wednesday “the Board will also include the Department in charge of ICT in Education and Open Distance e-learning while Higher Education Council (HEC) and Workforce Development Authority will continue operating seoarately. Speaking to The New Times yesterday, the Minister of Education, Daphrose Gahakwa said that merging the parastatals would ease the coordination of education systems. “The main aim of this is to increase synergies and bring about more coordination of these entities which will lead to better output,” said Gahakwa. She also made it clear that the cabinet only approved the structures of the Board and that the draft law establishing the Board would soon be sent to parliament. “After the establishment of the Board, the current heads of the merged parastatals will become Deputy CEOs while the government will appoint the head of the Board,” she added. The same cabinet meeting established three other boards in the Ministry of Infrastructure; those are Transport Development Board (TDB), Energy and Water Development Board (EWDB) and Urban Housing Development Board (UHDB). According to the minutes, TDB will deal with matters relating to roads, railway /train, waterways transport and air transport while EWDB will oversee Water and Energy infrastructure. “The Urban Housing Development Board will handle urban Habitat and Construction” states the minutes. The Boards are modelled after similar development agencies created by other emerging nations, particularly some of the Asia Tigers and their main responsibility will be to fast-track development activities. Ends