EDITORIAL: Ensuring quality education should be the ultimate goal

With the majority of Rwanda’s population made up of children, it is imperative that the government channels all its energy in their welfare.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

With the majority of Rwanda’s population made up of children, it is imperative that the government channels all its energy in their welfare.

The most important pillar is education and health and the government has invested heavily in the two sectors; from the compulsory access to education that also equips students with laptops under the One-Laptop-per-Child programme as well as the highly successful rollout of more classrooms countrywide.

The future of the children would not be assured without access to healthcare that has registered many successes in reducing infant mortality and creating a robust healthcare system.

With the advent of technological advances, the country has not been left behind. It has pegged its education and healthcare to the digital world. But that alone would not make a dent in improving service delivery if there were no dedicated staff to accompany the programmes.

The teaching profession is yet to come to par with other vital professions such as the medical field, and that is one area that will need a lot of resources and creative thinking to come out with a winning formula.

It will be an uphill task to satisfy the needs of teachers, but in the meantime they have not been left to their own devises. A teachers’ savings and credit body, Umwalimu Sacco, was created to reduce their burden. But that might solve the immediate need of the teachers but it will hardly have any effect to the most important aspects of education: Quality.

That remains a huge debt to our children; ensuring that they get access to quality education to better equip them with the needed skills to run the affairs of the country when their time comes.