Education in Rwanda - Education Issues in Rwanda

Education Issues in Rwanda

The level of education one has is often seen as a form of capital accumulation which helps in countries’ development. In Rwanda, the government implemented policies over the years to ensure there is a high literacy rate among the population. As of 2004-2008, 77% of males and females are literate, which is a relatively high percentage, however, those who continue into secondary schooling stands at a low 31%. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) can be seen as partially successful in getting the young to receive schooling.

The education level, in Rwanda, remains low despite implementation of the policies such as mandatory education for primary school (6 years) and lower secondary schooling (3 years) that is run by state schools. The children are not required to pay school fees for the mandatory schooling. A Rwandan is expected to complete an average of 10.6 years of education. However, the mean number of years that a Rwandan spends on education is 3.3 years, which is lower than the expectation. It is also lower than the average years of schooling in developed countries and Sub-Saharan Africa, which are 10.0 years and 4.5 years respectively. Based on the 2010 Human Development Index (HDI) report, Rwanda is ranked at 152 out of a total of 169 countries under the ‘Low Human Development’ category.

The number of Rwandans admitted into schools has increased between 2001 to 2008, but the facilities and resources have not increased at the same rate.Enrollment in primary school almost doubled over the decade with an average annual growth rate of 5.4 percent between 1998 and 2009, to reach almost 2.2 million students in 2008. However, enrollment growth slowed in 2007/08 with a total increase of only 40,000 students, compared to an increase of 160,000 students in 2005/06. Surprisingly, no significant increase is apparent following the implementation of the fee-free primary education policy in 2003/04, implying that factors other than school fees play a role in the decision to send a child to school. In 2008, around 71 primary level pupils are taught in a single classroom and within the secondary school level for Rwandans, around 5 students shared 1 textbook on average. An average primary school teacher has to handle around 62 students as the class size increases at a faster rate as compared to the number of teachers employed. The schools in the more remote rural areas also find it tough to attract teachers.

The constraints are aggravated by the fact that supplementary reading materials were inadequate, particularly for the lower primary school grades.

• (i) textbook distribution is heavily dependent on the availability of funds, which affects the government’s ability to conduct adequate planning, and may not effectively respond to supply and demand;

• (ii) the evaluation of textbook publishing bids often take a long time;

• (iii) teachers feel that they are insufficiently involved in the textbook selection process; and

• (iv) textbooks may be damaged because of poor distribution and stock management.

These factors result in discrepancies in pupil to textbook ratios between schools and within districts. This goes to show that there is still a challenge in terms of access and high quality textbooks in Rwanda which are expected to be addressed in upcoming plans.

About 40% of the teacher’s population in Rwanda have less than 5 years of teaching experience. The amount of teachers who are qualified in the primary school have increased to 99% in 2008, however the amount of teachers who are qualified in the secondary school are only 36% and 33% for lower and upper secondary respectively. This means that Rwanda is not able to produce a highly skilled workforce, especially when considering the large proportion of teachers who are not qualified to teach the secondary school pupils.

Most of the teachers, felt that they have been poorly paid. As a result, only 10% of the total teacher respondents have undergone qualification upgrading to attain higher qualifications for teaching in Rwanda. Most of the secondary school teachers are studying for higher qualification that is not for teaching. This shows that the incentive for further education is low and there are other jobs that have a higher benefit as compared to teaching in Rwanda. Overall, the lack of quality in the education system, such as the standards of the teachers, lack of facilities and resources makes schooling unattractive.