The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana says that to improve the quality of education, the government will spend hugely on the construction, maintenance of schools.In the revised budget for 2020/2021, the government plans to spend Rwf492billion in the entire education sector from Rwf310, 2billion in the 2019/2020 budget.
Of this amount, Rwf35.6 billion will be dedicated to construction of new schools and maintenance of existing ones.
Another Rwf25.1 billion will go into improving the quality of basic education including the hiring of trained teachers for the 2021/2022 fiscal year budget.
On June 22, the Minister presented to Parliament the Fiscal Year 2021/2022 National Budget under the East African Community theme: “Economic Recovery through industrialization and inclusive growth.”
“There is also a need of improving the quality of education in our country through infrastructural development, and the government plans to spend Rwf35.6 billion on building and maintenance of schools,” Dr. Ndagijimana said.
He further said that another expenditure priority area in the education sector will be hiring trained teachers for basic education.
A school block at Horezo village in Muhanga district
Presenting the budget to legislators, Minister Ndagijimana noted that the fiscal policy of 2021/22 will prioritize spending to deliver on investments aimed at achieving National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) goals.
The estimated government expenditures in the education sector related to the country’s most important goals for Rwanda’s vision 2024 to move towards a knowledge-based economy through quality education for graduates to be able to compete at the international labour market.
The estimated expenses for the fiscal year for 2021/22 comes to solve education sector challenges including students who walk long distances to/from school and overcrowding in schools.
According to the Ministry of education, some students in the country walk an average of eight kilometers to/from school.
The government so far has made relentless efforts to combat this challenge with the construction of over 1150 new classrooms worth Rwf10.4Billion with the target to reduce the distance to 2 kilometers for secondary school and 1 kilometer for primary students.
Similarly, the government has also been fighting to reduce the student-teacher ratio that reportedly stands at 59:1 in Primary and 29:1 in Secondary or 46:1 on average in both levels.
Starting with December 2020, there has been mass recruitment of teachers targeting to reduce the student-teacher ratios to at least 40:1 with the government aiming at hiring about 29,000 teachers.
