Education in Rwanda

Welcome to the online guide to Education in Rwanda. Information on the ministry of Education, secondary schools, primary schools, Higher education opportunities and so much more. The development of

ICT in Education

is set to improve Rwanda’s economy through education ventures. Find more information and about the Education sector in Rwanda.

 

Rwanda Education

Prior to 1900 education in Rwanda was informal and was largely delivered through the family. Aside family, ‘Amatorero training schools also delivered the training. Among the courses trained included military and war skills, foundry and iron smith, basket making as well as poetry to mention but a few. Between 1990 and 1960, Rwanda saw formal education become popular especially in 1933 where a Belgian census led to the measurement as well as classification of the population along ethnic and racial lines. Tutsis got the privilege of attending the best schools to attain the best education on the expense of the Hutus. This was the main result of the ethnic tensions and this later led to a civil war.
All through the past few years, Rwanda’s education system has gone through a remarkable period of growth especially in the sector of access and the country sees education as a critical investment for the future growth and development of the country. This is seen by the increased share of the national budget to the education sector. It is set to increase from 17% in 2012/13 to 22% in 2017/18.
As a way to maintain and improve the education system of Rwanda, there are bodies that oversee the educational standards and these include; division of construction and equipment which sets standards classroom/school construction; national examination council which sets standards for grades and progression to the next stage of education; department of planning which sets and monitors standards on system performance indicators and lastly the general inspectorate of education which inspects and advises on standards adherence and compliance.
As the world advances in technology, Rwanda has also picked up the pace and is doing everything possible to be at par with the rest of the world. The

government of Rwanda

has formed a national strategy for information and communications technology (ICT) which is coordinated by the

Rwanda information technology authority (RITA)

. Their ministry of education is promoting the use of ICT in schools right from the junior classes going up and is as well coordinating the ‘one laptop per child’ project in the country. We believe this is going to pay heavily later in future and development of the country.

Rwanda education system

Rwanda operates on a 6-3-3-4 school system, that is to say six (6) years for primary school, three (3) years for ordinary level (junior secondary school), three (3) years for advanced level (senior secondary school) and four (4) years for university bachelor’s degree. 3 official languages of instruction are used in the Rwandan education system: Kinyarwanda is used in primary school p1-p3 and English is used from p4 through university. French is taught as well but as a supplement subject in public primary and secondary schools. A few private schools have both Anglophone and Francophone systems that use English or French respectively as their languages of instruction. Those using the Anglophone system use French as an elective subject and those in the Francophone system use English as the elective subject. Each year over 44,000 students are enrolled in higher education for undergraduate, graduate, certificate and diploma programs. The University of Rwanda was recently formed as a merger of former public universities and these universities became collages of the

University of Rwanda

. These include college of business and economics (former school of finance and banking), college of arts and humanities (former national university of Rwanda in Butare), college of science and technology (former Kigali institute of science and technology), college of agriculture, animal sciences and veterinary medicine (former higher institute of agriculture and livestock in Musanze, college of medicine and health sciences (former Kigali health institute) and lastly college of education (former Kigali institute of education).
All this is made possible by the effortless works of the Rwanda education board whose mission is to fast-track education development in Rwanda by enabling education sector growth. It has done this by working with and addressing the needs of schools public and private to bring their education on the same range as that of the east African community. Work is done in six departments namely the department of curricula and pedagogical materials, the department of teacher education management and professionalization, the department of education quality and standard, the department of

ICT in education

and open distance and e-learning, the department of examination & accreditation and finally the department of

high education student loan

.
Embrace the Rwandan education system by being a part of it today!