Post-Genocide leaders gave education a blank cheque

Prior to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi which claimed the lives of a million people, education in this country was just a privilege to those the then regime considered deserving. Others were clearly denied this basic human right. What is astounding is that many people did not see anything wrong with that or, bluntly speaking, their grievances were stashed in their voiceless yearning for a new era that would eventually come through rebellion. With around 3,000 graduates in the whole of Rwanda by 1994, the country was on a sure and steady regressive path whose consequences would be more far reaching than one could imagine at the time.RPF‘s heroic triumph over the genocidal forces can be comparable to the dramatic Biblical delivery of Paul and Silas from the iron chains of prison. The liberation thereof was not only physical but it was also mental. Windows of opportunity and doors of education flung open in the post-Genocide Rwanda, thanks to the RPF liberators under the leadership of President Paul Kagame.The liberation war was a grandeur dream wrapped in the crossfire that finally expunged the oppressive regime from Rwanda and stopped the red streams that oozed with the blood of innocent citizens.Men and women under the banner of RPF put their lives on the line for their motherland that their hearts, drowned in the thirst for political, social and economic emancipation. Universal access to education for all Rwandans was a wordless creed that inspired the liberation struggle amid all the odds of war.Nineteen years later, the type has met its antitype. The dilapidated structures that served as classrooms for schools would gradually be replaced with much better structures both in quality and quantity. Rwanda has moved on and is often a reference point especially when you look at life-changing initiatives like the One-Laptop-Per-Child, Nine-Year-Basic Education programme, or the more recent 12-Year-Basic Education that is being rolled out.Quality educationQuality education is a right for all Rwandans. Under the RPF government, universal access to quality education is a priority. A crystal-clear proof of this is the fact that education has continued taking the lion’s share of the national budget. Liberation meant a bright future for the dejected young and old alike.President Kagame knows it too well that the surest way to invest in the future is investing in the education of citizens.Universal access to the nine-year-basic education programme (9YBE) has gone a long way in elevating the literacy levels. Picking up from the rubble and taking the nation to a whopping 75 per cent literacy level (2011 statistics) is no small feat. Indeed, according to the report, the literacy level for both male and female stood at 75 per cent. What an amazing gender parity equation!Arguably, Rwanda can boast of some of the best schools in the region and beyond because of the state-of- the-art infrastructure in the schools. A switch from a previously predominate Francophone to an Anglophone system, or at least the merger of the two systems, and the subsequent joining of the Commonwealth has given Rwandans a sharp edge to compete in the region. Education facilities have been expanded and foreign institutions of higher learning are increasingly setting up campuses in Kigali. Students are now spoilt with choice, a far cry from the situation in yesteryears when an ill-equipped National University of Rwanda (NUR) was the only place to go.The number of graduates with employable skills and those who have already been absorbed into the labour market is tremendous now.