Teacher’s in an exam
The Ministry of Education has temporarily changed the teacher’s recruitment examination system, as the only criteria to recruit teachers, including the academic transcript results procedure, as an alternative to hire new teachers.
Under the new rules, te best academic graduates will be hired to join the teaching profession on a one-year trial contract, pending confirmation.
The new teacher’s hiring system comes after huge numbers of teachers failed recruitment exams in the previous double mass recruitment examination exercises, affecting the government’s target to hire about 29, 000 teachers for the academic year 2020/2021.
The teachers to be hired using their academic transcript results will be given a one-year trial contract to be assessed, before they are permanently hired.
According to the Ministry of Education, in December last year, only 2% of the teachers who sat for the recruitment exams passed, meaning 98% failed while 15% only passed during the latest exams conducted in July 2020.
This means that 85% of the candidates failed the latest recruitment exams. All the teachers who failed in the duo recruitment exams failed to attain the 70% pass mark required.
According to the Minister of Education, Dr Valentine Uwamariya, the changes are expected to help the government quickly address the teacher deficit.
“Last year we had a gap of about 7000 teachers, we conducted the first recruitment exams and only 2% passed, in the second recruitment examination only 15% passed. We have now adjusted to the new system of recruiting teachers by considering their academic performances in their previous universities and colleges,” Dr. Uwamariya said.
She pointed out that they requested the Ministry of Public Service and Labour to change the recruitment system and the ministry agreed.
“That is why we asked for the academic transcript from the graduates willing to join the teaching profession. We have a gap of 18,000 teachers and they will be recruited using this new system,”
“This last batch of 18,000 teachers to be hired using their academic transcript results will not be hired permanently, they will be given a one year contract, assessed and evaluated before they are recruited as permanent professionals.” Dr. Uwamariya said.
The Minister of Education Dr Uwamariya says MIFOTRA has okayed a new format to recruit teachers.
The mass recruitment of teachers targets reducing the student-teacher ratio with the government aiming at hiring about 29,000 teachers after the reopening of all schools in January 2021.
The student-teacher ratio stands at 59:1 in Primary and 29:1 in Secondary or 46:1 on average in both levels.
As schools gradually reopen, the government is building 22,500 new classrooms to make sure that during the education new normal, the ratio of students to teachers would be on acceptable standards.
Dr. Uwamariya said that the new system of hiring teachers depending on their academic transcripts results is done as an emergency of searching for the remaining 18,000 teachers. But the teacher’s stature recruitment procedure remains.
Initially, Teachers’ recruitment and the appointment are jointly done by the following institutions, the City of Kigali and the district, the Ministry in charge of education, and the Ministry in charge of public service, according to the teacher’s statute.
In the process of recruitment and appointment of teachers, the City of Kigali and the District have the following responsibilities including, making a list of all teaching positions and schools in the City of Kigali and the districts, which need to be provided with teachers and submit to the Ministry in charge of education the list of teaching positions that need to be provided with teachers.
Other responsibilities by the city of Kigali are to appoint the successful candidates in accordance with the placement list provided by the Ministry in charge of education and to ensure induction and mentorship for newly recruited teachers.
While, the ministry of education is supposed to publish a list of all teaching positions available based on all teaching subjects in the nursery, primary, secondary, and TVET schools through the public service e-recruitment portal by MIFOTRA and to shortlist applicants who fulfill the portfolio requirements, among others.
According to the teacher’s statute, MIFOTRA is mandated to manage the process of recruitment and appointment of teachers through the public service e-recruitment portal and to maintain, for a period of twenty-four (24) months, a valid database of all successful candidates who are eligible for appointment and placement in case a vacant position is reported during that period.
