Rwanda : The education sector has tremendously improved – REB
Posted on September 4, 2012 by admin in English
Students sitting for the 2011 national exams
The Rwanda Education Board (REB) has said that the numbers of students graduating from High school have steadily risen since 1998 partly due to the introduction of the Free Universal education other and policies.
According to REB, a total of 384, 788 have sat for the A-level national Exams since academic year 1998-1999 to 2012.
Officials in REB say that the numbers of Secondary school finalists steadily rose through the years showing an interesting trend of more Rwandans becoming educated. In the year, 1998-1999 had a total of 10, 270 while those who sat for the 2011 exams were 30, 845.
The steady rise in the numbers of secondary school finalists is according the officials as a result of the free education.
They say free education solved the problem of poor children who could not afford school fees whole others sued to try, but would later drop out of school.
This usually was a root cause to various other problems which included: being desperate, losing hope for the future, doing drugs among the youth, prostitution and many other vices.
In the event of introducing free education, the government also managed to build more schools bringing education closer to the beneficiaries. Currently there is at least a school in every sector. This has done stopped the problem of students walking long distances to go to school which was another discouragement.
Rwanda recently won the Common Wealth Award Rwanda due to the introduction of the equitable access to nine years of basic, quality education and skills.
The Nine Year Basic Education (9-YBE) was initiated in 2009 as a response to a heightened demand for secondary education in Rwanda, following the successful implementation of Universal Primary Education six years earlier.
9-YBE won the 2012 award because according to the judges addressed the immediate need for expansion of education after the devastation of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
It is also commended for the expansion of access to education as it represented a qualitative shift in the dynamics of schooling and made a major contribution to national reconciliation.
