While closing the annual holiday camp dubbed ‘Edified Generation’ which is organized by Imbuto Foundation, First Lady Jeannette Kagame tipped the close to 800 young campers to embody cultural values beyond the education they get.
The campers, who form the 13th cohort, started their camp on September 10. They were best students selected from different parts the country, coming from vulnerable backgrounds.
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They are set to benefit from the foundation’s scholarship programme that is under the Office of the First Lady.
While there is little doubt that these young Rwandans, just like those that came before them, will achieve academically, it is important that academic achievement goes hand in hand with cultural values which will then make them useful and impactful leaders of tomorrow.
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Over the years, the government has invested a lot of effort in promoting values-based education with the conviction that however much a student can be facilitated to excel academically, without values that education will go to waste. It will not help the country, the community or even the students themselves and their families.
Some of the values on which emphasis is placed across board include; integrity, truthfulness, patriotism, and hard work, among others.
Without these, we would put an entire generation to waste and the country is a living testimony to the fact that education is not an end into itself if not backed by values.
Barely 30 years ago, over a million innocent lives were lost during the Genocide against the Tutsi. The genocide was hatched and supervised by people who had an education. They lacked values.
On a positive side however, it was the same values that were espoused by leaders who took over post-genocide that helped the country achieve what it has achieved today against all the odds that were stack against it.
To be sure of the sustainability of the gains registered by the country over the past few decades, and build on them to achieve the vision that the country has set out, the next generation must be prepared early.
That preparation therefore is an education that is underpinned by the values embraced by our ancestors.
Therefore, not just students but also schools where they will be going should clearly articulate these values and put in place necessary mechanisms to ensure they are imparted on this young generation without fail.