Do you ever wonder why joblessness is wrecking havoc among Rwanda’s “educated” youth?
The majority of Rwandan intellectuals are francophones, which is not acceptable according to Kagame. Students cannot learn English due to the mediocre education they get under Kagame’s regime. Rwanda’s few good English teachers are foreigners and are employed as expatriates, on expatriate wages. Good for Kenyans and Ugandans – and Americans.
But do you realize how many of these expatriate teachers Rwanda can actually afford to pay wages? Rwanda’s small economy can only handle a handful of these teachers. The latter are so few that they are only a drop in the bucket, given that teachers are needed at virtually all levels of education.
It is very costly to pay these teachers and this is another reason why Kagame keeps issuing junk bonds every other day. He needs to borrow cash.
Kagame is a brutal murderer and is a brutal decision maker. Did he weigh the pros and cons of switching an entire country from one language to another? Did any of his partners-in-crime honestly tell him about the cost/cost analysis? Who told Kagame that English and French cannot coexist in the same country? Does he see anything wrong with Canada where English and French are both official languages?
Kagame’s reckless decision to abruptly switch languages has very negative long-term ramifications on Rwanda’s future. This – coupled with the lack of a consistent policy – is the fundamental reason why Rwanda’s quality of education has been falling of the cliff in recent several years. It is an open secret that Paul Kagame changes his cabinet ministers as often as he changes his undergarments. Maybe that shouldn’t be a problem. The real issue is that every new minister comes in with their own system of education. For instance, it is increasingly becoming hard to keep track of how many times the regime has changed the student grading systems. First it was in percentages, then they switched to ABC, and now they going by something else nobody can even name. The number of years kids spend in primary education has changed several times, and so did the number of times students spend in secondary school, and so forth. The school/academic year had switched from trimesters to semesters. The main annual school recess has moved from summertime to the beginning of the year, etc.
Rwanda’s education system has become like a roller-coaster and students are sick from the dizzying ride.
Things have deteriorated so badly that a degree from Rwanda has become worthless internationally. Organizations such as American ETS that specialize in education standardization are having a hard time establishing the real worth or equivalency of a degree or a diploma from a Rwanda’s educational institutions. And while Rwandan students used to excel whenever they went to study abroad, today it is the exact opposite – Rwandan students cannot compete internationally.
Bosco Mutarambirwa
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To learn more about the crisis in Rwanda’s job market, seehttp://www.dw.de/regional-integration-stokes-rw…/a-18112567…
