In my previous articles I have insisted that parents, teachers, students must learn how to join hands to participate actively in the education process. That is why the National Educational Forum, a consultative body that expresses the views and ideas of parents, teachers and the educated, was formed. Moving forward however, I propose the formation of the “National Participatory Parents and Teachers Association (NAPPATA). The target of the NAPPATA will be to ‘own’ and participate in our children’s education beginning from primary to university level. I believe that once this good example is realised in Rwanda, it will be proposed to the East African community and CPGL with the aim of harmonizing the education system in our region. It is only through education that Africa will achieve unity. NAPPATA will establish a national council for basic education where policy will be drawn up and implemented. This council will mobilize every citizen to have ownership of this important sector. Education is something that the Government should not own alone. On this good idea, we support fully the President when he told the leaders in charge of education to organize the parents to have a participatory and ownership of education. This is the kind of statesmanship we need. Now its time that we played our part; this can be done if we organize ourselves. Although we admire the establishment of the basic education policy, the government did not consult parents prior to the making of that good policy. The policy is that basic education should have been at least for ten years; six years of primary and four years for secondary education. I believe that the entire policy must be in collaboration with parents. They must be prepared and trained so as to implement the education goals. It should be understood who a parent is, when I say ‘parent’. In my understanding, every body is a parent. A parent is a man or a woman who bear children, a parent is a teacher who educates the children, and a parent is a religious leader who helps give moral education. All of those people have to come together and have a forum to exchange views and come up with ideas that will shape their children’s future. Unless we adopt a consultative way of life, we will be doomed to perish; the colonial system shaped our education and we have seen what we harvested. Our system must involve every body and make everybody have a stake in the shaping of the future of his/her country The author is a former teacher and an avowed Pan-Africanistkakipata@yahoo.com
