Private sector urged to invest in higher education

KIGALI - The Secretary General in the Ministry of Education, Justin Nsengiyumva, has urged stake holders in the private sector to play a leading role in investing in higher education. Nsengiyumva said this while officially opening the final consultative meeting on the national strategic policy of higher education yesterday at the Kigali Institute of Technology (KIST). “Because it is a primary tool for development, we request the private sector to have a hand in the education sector,” Nsengiyumva stated. He continued that government should assist the existing institutions of higher learning to acquire what they lacked instead of closing them. “The government has to provide any possible assistance to the private institutions if the goals of the education sector are to be achieved,” he said. He went on to say that higher education is an important component of the Rwandan education system. This, he explained, enables the country to realize its ambitions for sustainable development and economic growth. The Executive Director of the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), Prof. Pamela Abbott, said that higher education was not given due consideration in the post colonial period. “The policy is supportive of the private sector’s involvement in education because it is an avenue for transforming the country,” she said. Between 1964 and 1994, less than 2,000 students graduated from the national university of Rwanda, but today, the government of Rwanda has made much progress and invested heavily in developing higher education. Currently, out of the 32 institutions of higher learning, 14 are private and the remaining 16 are public institutions. The policy being drafted proposes that the government should make appropriate decisions that will enable stakeholders to build on the already available institutional structures and to address the social and economic challenges. The education policy will be forwarded to the cabinet for approval after these thorough consultations. Ends