TEACHER'S MIND : Gladly wishing you a Merry Christmas

LIKE every other year, Christmas is here again. It’s a day of celebrations since it marks the birth of God’s only son, Jesus Christ. It is often incomplete without a visit to church to worship the Creator and thank Him for this great gift of giving His only son to be our saviour. From a tender age, the story of Christmas has been told to generations covering almost the whole breadth of this universe. The missionaries brought it to Africa and it is still being passed on through oral tradition and basic Bible classes. Christmas always seems to be more important to the younger children. As we grow older we are then charged with ensuring that the younger ones can have a memorable Christmas. Christmas season is also characterised by doing good deeds. This partly explains why even during World War II there was a ceasefire so that warring forces could spend time singing Christmas carols. On these same grounds, I wish to call a ceasefire of sorts and simply wish all the readers of this column a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2010. This column has been running for more than two years now. Many of you have been ardent readers and some have actually taken time to show your appreciation through feedback emails where you commend the role it plays in addressing various educational issues in this country. I am very pleased by those who have spared time to send me comments through email and compliments about the things you have read here. This has always been very crucial in my efforts to make this column much better and I urge you to keep doing it. Just like in class, a teacher relies a lot on feedback to ascertain the impact of their teachings and see where to make adjustments. This column endeavours to be as educative as possible. The main goal of the current government is to create an economy based on highly skilled human resources. The current leadership duly understands the basic fact that a nation needs a developed education system in order to bolster development. That is why a lot of efforts are made to ensure that this sector reaches higher levels of performance so that the products of the system become the fuel for the country’s development engine. Over the years several developments have taken place in this country all aimed at improving the standards of education that hit rock bottom during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi when scores of teachers and professors were brutally murdered. A lot of progress has been achieved since then and it is indeed an understatement to say that Rwanda is on the right path. Rwanda’s recent admission to the English speaking Commonwealth group of nations and its membership in the predominantly English speaking East African Community are steps in the right direction that are bound to take the education sector to very high levels. The adoption of English as the language of instruction is certain to open doors for more Rwandans. Of course many Rwandans are French speakers and cannot understand enough English to communicate in the language. But this will gradually cease to be a problem as the government is committed towards ensuring that the policy is fully implemented. The ongoing English language trainings for teachers countrywide are meant to address this problem. The rolling out of the One Laptop Per Child project is yet another step in the right direction. Currently, fibre optic cables are being laid all over the country and very soon Rwanda’s education will be almost entirely hinged onto ICT. More schools are opening up and more Rwandans are accessing scholarships to and study in first class universities. As the author of this column, I thank you all for supporting this publication and I pledge to continue doing my best for as long God will let me. Merry Christmas! ssenyonga@gmail.com