The Rwanda Education Board (REB) has announced recruitment of half of the number of trained teachers who applied to join the teaching domain in this school year.
REB said that 17,000 fresh teachers out of the 34,000 applicants have been placed in various schools across the country and will start duties effective next week January 18, 2021.
This posting of new teachers comes after several controversies in the teacher placement process over what some applicants termed as a ‘biased’ in its current manual selection and placement system.
Though there is high demand for more teachers in Rwanda as a result of over 22,000 newly constructed classrooms countrywide, some applicants have allegedly failed to meet the required qualifications thus delaying the recruitment process.
Apparently, some candidates who were initially left out were not satified and they complained to REB.
One of them, Joel Sakindi, a qualified teacher in Gasabo district asked:
“How is it possible that I scored high but didn’t get a placement yet a fellow colleague with lesser marks did?”
Jean Damascene Nsengiyumva, the REB Deputy Director General said that this is possible depending on demand and supply of teachers in a particular district.
“For instance, if one district has more applicants but with few positions, the pass mark will be high whereas a district with fewer applicants will require a relatively lower pass,” Nsengiyumva explaine on national broadcasting January 12.
REB official said that 2,000 teachers who have not been recruited this January, will be considered in an ongoing progressive recruitment plan which will consider teachers who didn’t get the opportunity.