Kagame’s “Smart Classrooms” Equipped with Computers and Internet Across Rwanda in Shambles

By David Himbara

General Paul Kagame declared that all secondary schools in Rwanda would have “smart classrooms” by 2018/2019 financial year. All secondary schools would be equipped with computers connected to internet, and all secondary school teachers would be trained to teach with internet tools. When this failed to materialize, Kagame changed the goal post.

The “smart classroom” in all Rwandan secondary schools would be achieved by the 2020/2021 financial year. This, too, failed to materialize. According to the Auditor General, the implementation rate of the “smart classroom” stands at 48 percent. By October 2021, 850 out of 1,764 secondary schools had been equipped with smart classrooms. In other words, in the rest 52 percent of secondary schools in Rwanda, computers are not being used by the teachers and pupils. Teachers have yet to be trained – the computers are kept in boxes in storage rooms.