The Ministry of Education launched on Saturday 20 June a project to build 22,505 classrooms and 31,932 latrines across the country. The implementation is to be carried out over three months to meet the challenge of quality education.
This gigantic project to build classrooms and latrines in all districts of the country will have to be finalized before the start of the school year in September.
“We are trying to solve the problem of overcrowding and the long distance students have to travel,” says the Minister of Education, Dr. Valentine Uwamariya.
The Prime Minister, Dr. Edouard Ngirente, says the project also aims to facilitate the work of the teacher for better monitoring of learners. “A teacher caring for 100 children has a more difficult task than one caring for 50 or 40 students,” says the coordinator of government action.
The Ministry of Education has set a maximum population of 45 students per class to ensure the quality of education. This is not always the case in most schools.
With the double-shift system of classrooms and teachers, in the end the educator has to deal with more than 100 children in his or her class. “It’s not an easy job, … when you have to correct the work of the learners, for example, this construction project is life-saving,” says a teacher at a basic education school in Nyarugenge district.
Classrooms will have to be built at the primary and secondary levels. It was a two-year project to be carried out with joint funding from the World Bank and the Rwandan government. The contribution of this international financial institution amounts to $126 million. This fund will be used for the construction of 11,000 furnished classrooms and about 14,500 latrines. The remainder will be financed from the Rwandan government’s regular budget.
Gérard Rugambwa
