President Paul Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame
President Paul Kagame says access to education for children is good, but having quality skills is important for them to be able to compete at the international labour market, where the country is heading.
The Head of State made the remarks at the opening day of the 17th National Umushyikirano Council that kicked off on Thursday 19.
He said, “It is good for every child to access education, but acquiring quality education is important. To improve this quality, we all need to contribute towards it. This is not the role of education ministry only.”
National Umushyikirano Council is the annual event that focuses on reviewing the achievements registered in the course of the year, and setting goals under Vision 2020. But more importantly the event sets pace for the much bigger and comprehensive Vision 2050.
“We are heading towards the future of competing globally; our children should be able to compete at the international labour market, so improving education is a role for us all. The country is heading to a future of urgent skills in Information Technology.”
“Efforts to improve education are not the concern for the Ministry Of Education sector only; we should all have a contribution towards this.”
Presidents’ remarks comes after, the country sets most important goals for Rwanda’s vision 2020 to move towards a knowledge based economy.
Today, education sector faces various challenges including students who walk long distance to/from school, overcrowding in schools, school feeding, to mention but a few.
Coding to be integrated in school curriculum
According to Ministry of education, some students in the country walk an average of eight kilometers to/from school.
In the new drive to solve this challenge, over 1150 new classrooms worth Rwf10.4Billion have been constructed to reduce the distance to 2 kilometers for secondary school and 1 kilometer for primary students.
School feeding challenge has been tackled by a new school feeding policy from ministry of education which pledged Rwf7billion subsidy.
School feeding policy implementation is partnered by ministry of education, parents and schools.
However, the policy has not been fully implemented by parents who are required to pay Rwf1500 per child, every month.
This month, the Ministry of education cleared the air about the long standing disagreement on using Kinyarwanda as a medium of instruction in lower primary, replacing it with English.
