Stakeholders are citing high costs of operating under new normal coupled with a lack of teachers, training, and kits
Players in the education sector are bracing for tough times ahead of the start of the new school year.
Already, they are citing high costs of operating under new normal coupled with a lack of teachers, training, and kits to enable recent changes in the language of instruction.
Education players say academies following the national curriculum will reopen for the 2021/2022 school year on October 11 after a year of prolonged and temporary pandemic-induced closures that paralysed learning.
At the outset, concerns were raised over the lack of progress with regard to the recruitment of teachers to fill up an estimated 11,000 vacancies across existing and newly built schools across the country.
Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) only announced plans to start recruitment two days after the Ministry of Education unveiled the new school calendar on September 2. It was until September 10 that REB officials issued a call for applicants.
This implies that many schools could start without teachers pending the ongoing recruitment and the subsequent placement process.
“The recruitment alone may take a month and a half if it is expedited. The additional problem is that there will be teachers from other backgrounds who require training in pedagogy. There could be delays with impact on learning,” argued Karangwa Sewase, a former school headteacher now involved in consultancies in education and governance.
Besides, the new recruits and existing teaching personnel will face another problem related to lack of preparation, training and materials to enforce the mandatory use of English as the language of instruction in lower primary levels.
A December 2019 directive by the education regulator required the use of English as the primary language in all grades in basic education, a change from the native Kinyarwanda, which had been in use for grades 1, 2, and 3.
Teachers told Rwanda Today the pandemic disrupted arrangements to equip concerned staff with training, and subsequent translation and distribution of learning and teaching materials.
REB director-general Nelson Mbarushimana did not respond to Rwanda Today queries by press time, but the heads of school organization president Innocent Gatete said the agency had given assurance that teachers’ recruitment and deployment would be timely.
“For the training and materials in line with the use of English in lower primary that one I may need to ask about the progress. But we hope that all the issues are being addressed ahead of the just-announced start of the school year,” he said.
Schools and learners also brace for irregularities in the school year whose start has shifted to October as opposed to January.
For parents, the time between the end of the school year and the start of the new one was insufficient to raise money to cover bills for materials and pay school fees.
The ongoing pandemic will see schools continue to foot higher bills of implementing preventive protocols like frequent handwashing.
With each learner requiring at least a litre of water for washing daily, a school with 2,000 learners may spend exorbitantly on water and soap bills on top of pre-existing utilities’ costs.