Rwanda is considered a model country on the African continent. Rwanda’s education policy has made a real quantum leap in the last 30 years. Today, 98 % of children attend school, compulsory education has been increased from 5 to 12 years, the lingua franca has been changed to English and all schools are going to be digitised by 2024. How Rwanda achieved these remarkable results and what still needs to be done – that’s what the Diplomatisches Magazin talked about with H.E. Igor Cesar, Ambassador of Rwanda to Germany.
DM: Excellency, Rwanda is one of the countries in Africa with the best quantitative education results: 98 percent of children attend primary school. Which political measures were necessary for this top result?
Ambassador of Rwanda: Before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the government did not see its citizen as its biggest asset. Access to education and citizenship were exclusive and ethnically binding. Free basic education was only free until the fifth grade primary school. Higher education was dominated by one academic institution, the National University of Rwanda, and access higher education subject to ethnic discrimination against the Tutsi. Between 1963 and 1994 the higher educational system only produced about 2000 graduated students.
In the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the new leadership recognized and understood that human capital as well as equal unifying citizenship is our biggest asset and the base for transformation and growth for Rwanda. Therefore, the need to invest in education became a priority, in making sure that equal access to education and equal citizenship was granted to all citizens. Through this people centred mind-set Rwanda implemented and invested in a series of measures, new policies and strategies such as school construction, school feeding policies, early childhood education development, teacher recruitment, teacher development & trainings, teaching and learning materials, promotion of girls education, increased parent involvement and private sector’s investment in education, etc. to name only a few.
Until 2012, compulsory basic education, free of charge, was extended gradually from 5th grade primary to a unified 12- year basic education cycle (six years of elementary education, three years of lower-secondary education, and three years of senior secondary education). With regards to Higher education, Institutions recorded a total of 88,448 students in 2020/21, which translates into 683 students in Higher education students per 100,000 inhabitants.
DM: According to the data of the World Bank’s „World Development Indicator“ still a lot to be done in terms of quality. In 2020, the proportion of children in Rwanda who could barely read in the third grade of primary school was about 40%. The proportion of children with significant deficits in mathematics was around 50%.
Ambassador of Rwanda: First we have to understand that Rwanda’s educational system had to go through a transformational process bridging the gap in the educational sector. The country had to respond first to many challenges in a short amount of time on the quantitative aspects of the education system to create a conducive environment available to every citizen before it could address the qualitative aspects.
We had to improve the educational system from 5 years of basic education to 12 years of basic education first. Then the country had to improve the ratio of pupils to qualified teachers while offering more attractive salaries to teachers and by building educational facilities, school classes on a large scale. Rwanda went through a rapid linguistic transition as the government realized that switching to English language would be an advantage for foreign trade, international relations, socioeconomic modernization, and for the regional integration in the East African Community (EAC). Due to insufficient English language abilities, many Rwandan schoolteachers had to be rapidly trained in English as language of instruction. Moreover, we had to develop from scratch new teaching contents and develop new pre-primary education curriculum. We introduced school feeding (e.g. One Cup of Milk per Child initiative) to fight malnutrition and to counter the development deficit of children’s brain capacity.
It is important to be aware that we had a complete generation in our country that was not educated but traumatized. Children therefore did not receive after school support at home and often suffered from psychological disorder due to trauma. Moreover, we had to start awareness campaigns promoting the importance to send children to school instead of keeping them at home for house chores.
Now with regards to improve mathematics and literacy, the current National Strategy for Transformation paper (2017- 2024) as well as the Education sector strategic plan (2018- 2023/2024) of the government prioritize amongst others that all learning citizens achieve basic levels of literacy and numeracy in early grades. Activities to strengthen both continuous Professional Development and Management of teachers across all levels of education in Rwanda as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) across all levels of education in Rwanda to increase the relevance of education for urban and rural markets are and will continue to be implemented. Also, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to transform teaching and learning and support the improvement of quality across all levels of education in Rwanda is enhanced and access to specific education programmes, especially at pre-primary, primary, secondary, TVET and Higher education levels in Rwanda are actively being promoted.
DM: Although the numbers of boys and girls in classes is relatively equal at the beginning of schooling, girls are more likely to drop out of school. In 26 of Rwanda’s 30 districts, there are far more boys than girls in classes. Girls are also significantly underrepresented in technical, vocational and tertiary education. What are the reasons for this? And how can this be changed?
Ambassador of Rwanda: Even though the Rwandan government has put policies so that gender parity in participation and achievement is ensured on all levels, on a cultural level the necessary mind-set change has yet to be achieved. For example, girls are traditionally assigned to house chores from a young age. Also according to statistics girls tend to drop out of school or university because of an early pregnancy or early marriage.
Moreover, with reference to the Gender Budget Statement Report of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Rwanda (2020-2021), it is to be noticed that there is a general preference for girls to enrol in soft trades like hospitality, tailoring, hair dressing, etc. and less in engineering related trades like welding, mechanical engineering or carpentry.
Last but not least, even though Rwanda stands out globally for its efforts in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment, we have not enough female role models that could inspire the current generation of young women and girls.
Rwanda continues to implement plans and activities to change the mind-set within the society and to improve girls education in a gender responsive manner through e.g.:
- organizing awareness and image campaigns to increase the proportion of girls and young women in academics, engineering and TVET training
- organizing campaigns against teenage pregnancies and hygiene
- awarding best performing girls in their field of studies
- prioritizing female applicants for PhD scholarships at Universities
- conducting trainings on gender inclusion for trainers and teachers
- conducting short term TVET trainings across the country for quick employment for women
- organizing short apprenticeship and internship for female students to improve employment opportunities
- promoting programs and initiatives providing education in the ICT sector like e.g. the WeCode initiative launched by ICT Chamber, the Private Sector Federation (PSF), GIZ, the Ministry of ICT and two program implementation partners (Moringa School and Muraho Tech) providing women trainings in coding to overcome the Gender-Digital Divide
DM: All in all, the progress in the education system in Rwanda is remarkable. For example, all children already have access to digital media in primary school. However, does Rwanda need to invest more in infrastructure and teacher training?
Ambassador of Rwanda: The short answer is yes. We defined in our countries vision with the intention to become a knowledge based society. Therefore it is for us indispensable to continue to invest into improving the quality of education for our people. As mentioned before, Rwanda’s strategic documents the National Strategy for Transformation paper (2017-2024) as well as the Education Sector Strategic Plan (2018- 2023/2024) address and reflect this key target as follows.
The National Strategy for Transformation paper key targets are to:
- Increase access to pre-primary education; net enrolment rates will reach 45% by 2024 from 17.5% in 2016
- Improve quality of education at all levels:
- Schools connected to the internet will increase to 100% by 2024 from 10% in 2016/17
- The primary and secondary schools with access to electricity will increase from 32% and 46% in 2016 to 100% in 2024
- Strengthen mechanisms to promote completion rates, especially in primary and secondary education: Transition rate from primary to lower secondary will increase from 71.1% in 2015 to 92.4% by 2024
- Ensure that people with disabilities can start school and progress through all levels of education
- Strengthen Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics across all levels of education: Achieve 80% of students enrolled in STEM in HLIs and TVETs by 2024 from 44% in 2016
- By 2024, ensure digital literacy for all youth (16 to 30 years) by achieving a digital literacy rate of at least 60% by 2024
Education Sector Strategic Plan key targets are:
- All learners achieve basic levels of literacy and numeracy in early grades and beyond
- All learners enter primary school at the correct age and successfully complete 12 years of basic education
- All children complete school readiness programs
- Ensure gender parity in participation and achievement at all levels of education
- Increased participation and achievement of children and young people with disabilities at all levels of education
- TVET and HEI programs are responsive to both labor market needs and Rwanda’s social and economic development
- Qualified teacher-pupil ratio in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools shall increase from 1:32; 1:62 and 1:28 in 2015 to 1:32, 1:52 and 1:34 respectively by 2024
Interview Marie Wildermann