University of Rwanda needs full support

Editor,This is with reference to the letter, “University of Rwanda faces stiff challenges but we had no choice,” published in The New Times issue of October 30.For me, the important first step in effective corrective action must be to fully understand the factors behind the sub-optimal results from the previous national higher education structure. If the primary cause was the high fragmentation and lack of coordination, then we should expect improvements after the merger of the various institutions and the creation of a single unified management and oversight framework.However, if the causes are to be found elsewhere, then the recent reforms will represent nothing more than tinkering that will fail to address the underlying factors.Whatever the case, the management and governors of the University of Rwanda have their work cut out for them.Much is expected of them to produce the kind and quantities of skills able to support our country’s ambitious growth plans, and to deliver the right type of qualified workers our country will require to attract very choosy investors to transform herself into a high-tech hub for the 21st Century at a time when countries will be in cut-throat competition to get a profitable share of fast-developing global value chains.Adequate resources must be made available so that we do not demand much out of the system even as we provide very little of the means that are necessary to its success. And our education and skills development strategy must be holistic – it must start from the realisation that quality education does not start at the university level; but must begin from early childhood, including pre-primary school.Plowing lots of resources into university education, important as it is, without dealing with the upstream from which the capacity to learn is built, would be akin to building castles in the air. As we all know, no edifice can stand even for a moment if it is not constructed on a firm foundation.Mwene Kalinda, Kigali

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University of Rwanda needs full support