Poor students’ performance blamed on incompetent teachers

EASTERN PROVINCE GATSIBO — District education officials, and head teachers, have said incompetent teachers and indiscipline among pupils, are partly to blame for poor performance of pupils in last year’s national examinations. Speaking at a meeting of district education officials and head teachers, last week, scores of head teachers blamed incompetent teachers and undisciplined students for poor performance. The meeting was convened to discuss reasons for poor performance of students in national examinations, in the district, and to find a lasting solution to reverse the trend. Out 2,072 students that sat for ordinary level exams in Gatsibo last year, 405 passed with an overall percentage of 19.5. The remaining 1,667 students failed to get the pass mark set by the Ministry of Education and the Rwanda National Examination Council. In primary leaving examinations, a total of 2,939 pupils failed to attain the pass mark. Other factors blamed poor performance included, lack of patriotism among teachers, poor collaboration between parents and teachers, and poor command of both English and French languages. They suggested stepping up supervision of teachers, to ensure lesson plans and schemes are followed, and increased seminars or workshops for untrained teachers. It was resolved that district officials would be carrying out periodic group inspection, of secondary schools and submit reports to the district. Also during the same meeting, it was resolved that those head teachers whose schools performed poorly, be fired from their jobs. Ends