Students to benefit from use of English in tuition;RNEC

Students to benefit from use of English in tuition;RNEC
BY GEORGE KAGAME

The Director General of Rwanda National Examinations Council-RNEC- John Rutayisire has welcomed the decision recently by government to adopt English as a medium of instruction in the country’s educational sector.

Speaking in an interview with The New Times today, Rutayisire said the language is needed as a tool of communication as well as a development tool. He said it would help students attain similar advantages in the East African job market as those from the established members of the regional black.

He said: “Because of the unique nature of the country’s political theorists, the decision could be differently interpreted by politicians but as education experts, we support government programmes in tourism promotion and creating an ICT hub in the region, if we want to achieve this objective in this region, we must produce labour that equally competes with our rivals in the region.”

Last week, the cabinet endorsed English as the major language that all levels of the education and speaking last week while touring a primary school in Kimiruhura, Kigali suburb, President Paul Kagame said cabinet changed from French to English because of the requirements of the labour market in the region-whereby most of the jobs in the region are held by mostly products of Uganda and Kenya's education system which uses English as the official medium of instruction.

Kagame said inorder for products of Rwanda's education system to compete favourably with others in the region, there was need to allign students towards English because it would open a wider market and opportunities for skilled labour.

According to Rutayisire, Rwanda's entry into the East African Community now ensures that education products of the education system here-which hitherto has been in French-competes with those from the established three members, as a result, many Rwandans are unfavoured by regional labour market demands.

As a result, one of the hot issues under debate in the EAC-Commom Market union negotiations curently underway are fears by some member countries that the free movement of labour will favour mainly Kenyans and Ugandans.

Commenting on the issue, Rutayisire said: "We shall emphasize to our students to learn all languages including Swahili, this will enable us to we are now calling for the support of teachers and parents because education reforms are part and partial of the rebiulding proccess we are undergoing to catch up with our competitors in the region."