Last week, Rwanda emerged the top winner of the 2012 Commonwealth Education Best Practice Awards, thanks to the country’s impressive record in universal access to education.In particular, the nine-year basic education programme, launched about four years ago, won the country the enviable recognition from the 54-nation community – yet another demonstration of how much Rwandans can achieve through hard work and joint efforts.Ordinary Rwandans led from the front, turning up in big numbers to construct classrooms for their children, building thousands of blocks in the process.Through the nine-year basic education programme, every community now has a school, and coupled with the fact that basic education is now free, the country is on course to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of basic education.This voluntary civic participation resulted in the introduction of the 12-year basic education programme, making education even more accessible and guaranteeing continuity. What once looked a farfetched dream has been achieved in just few years through a collective home-grown initiative.In June, Rwandans celebrated the tremendous achievements of the Gacaca courts, one of the many home-grown initiatives that have become the hallmark of the post-Genocide Rwanda.The Imihigo (performance contracts), Umushyikirano (National Dialogue) and Umuganda (Community Work), to mention but a few, have all played a major role in fast-tracking Rwanda’s development process, against all odds. The results of these initiatives have been tremendous, to say the least. And the Agaciro Development Fund promises to follow the same trend.The benefits of these home-grown programmes provide an impeccable motivation to stick with this development approach.
