Teachers and parents should work together to improve the quality of education in the Nyabihu District, the Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education has said. Dr Mathias Harebamungu, who was at the weekend addressing head teachers, parents’ representatives, and officials in charge of education in sectors, said although education in the district has improved over time, there is need for everybody to play a role to improve it further. “Parents should take care of their children at home, make sure the children go to school and do revision. It is not solely the job of the minister, teacher or any other person, it is the responsibility of everyone,” said Harebamungu. He urged schools to avoid all the challenges leading to the students drop outs and encourage them to study well while doing sports to be physically fit and competent at national and international level. Educators said the quality of education in the district was not bad but expressed their commitment to improve it. The annual pass rate last year was 78 per cent at primary level, 72 per cent in O-Level and 95 per cent in A-Level. Emmanuel Israel Rukwaya, the head teacher of Trinity Primary School, said they were ready to work with local leaders to mobilise parents to play their role. “We are going to mobilise parents and guardians to encourage children attend school and follow up on their studies. We will also deal with those parents that deprive children of their rights,” he said.Among the problems raised by the teachers were unpaid arrears and lack of infrastructure such as electricity, which hinders information and technology teaching. Musanze urges on statisticsMeanwhile, head teachers in Musanze District have been urged to increase application of effective statistics.During a workshop that brought together education stakeholders, last week, head teachers were told statistics make planning and implementation of programmes more realistic. The workshop was organised by the district in collaboration with INES-Ruhengeri, a higher education institute, to mobilise educationists to provide effective figures to ease planning.“Statistics is a basic tool for a country to have good and tangible planning, without proper statistics you can’t have good planning and implementation cannot be done effectively,” said Samuel Sindayigaya, a statistician and lecturer at INES. Sindambiwe said if the number of students given by a school head is wrong, it affects, for instance, the distribution of materials, which might either cause loss if the figure given is higher or create shortage if the number is low.Participants commended the workshop and committed to providing better statistics to ease planning. “We had no training in data entry and it has been difficult. Now that we have been trained, it will make our work easier,” said Sr. Donatha Nyirahabyarimana, the head teacher of Groupe Scloraire Remera.
