Dr Irenee Ndayambaje(L), the REB boss in a Music class
The Rwanda Education Board(REB) said it will resume a national recruitment of teachers for Primary and Secondary Education before the next academic year which was scheduled in September 2020.
The New Coronavirus which affected several services since March this year had not spared education; it had put recruitment on hold.
According to the REB, the teacher’s recruitment plan for 2020-2021 will be the biggest ever with 7,214 new staff needed.
The recruitment intends to bridge the student-teacher ratio which stands at 59:1 in Primary and 29:1 in Secondary.
“The government is building new classrooms, and of course, we need teachers too. We are waiting for the government to advise us on how the exercise should resume,” Dr. Irenee Ndayambaje, Director General of Rwanda Education Board (REB) told KT Press recently.
“The recruitment exercise was halted from the application processes, we shall resume it, verify teachers’ qualification documents, and start their placements in schools before September.”
In this plan, 3,799 teachers will go to primary, 3,417 are destined to secondary while 386 teachers are being recruited for Technical and Vocational Education training (TVET) schools.
Initially, the recruitment was a task of the district but this number has never been reached.
In Rwanda, there are 2,479,366 students in primary schools and 636,162 students in secondary schools. However, this number is projected to increase as schools reopen in September 2020.
The country has 41,573 teaching staff in primary schools and 21,990 teaching staff in public secondary schools, according to the ministry of education.
“We expect a much bigger number of students as schools reopen in September, some children will start school for the first time. But they should already find teachers and classrooms, these are simultaneous.” Dr. Ndayambaje said.
The government has started construction of 22,505 primary, secondary, and vocational institutions classrooms to improve the students – teacher ratio.
Last year, January 28, a cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame approved a 10% increase for teachers’ salaries.
A primary teacher salary was increased to Rwf46, 400 from Rwf41,573 and a secondary teacher earns now Rwf137, 000 from Rwf125, 000 monthly salary.
