Editor,

RE: "The need to rethink our education system” (The New Times, January 21).

All successful cases and examples happened only when citizens learned science in their respective mother tongue, unlike our country flip-flopping from French to English, wasting time and resources in mastering the two European languages; and by the time you get full control of it (a foreign language), you’re too old to engage in science.

We’ll never build a solid scientific base as long as we teach science to our children in foreign language. It’s practically impossible. What country do you know that excelled in science using a foreign language? Is it Japan, USA, China, Britain, Germany, Italy? What country?

The last thing we need is to not translate science books into our national language. Rwanda was blessed with one language for all, unlike other African and Asian nations – our language is not foreign, and doesn’t belong to any tribe or region or demographic group. That alone makes Kinyarwanda an invaluable asset, yet we failed to take full advantage of this rare blessing.

My heart is bleeding for personally failing to impose Kinyarwanda as the de facto language medium for Rwanda’s science aspirations. May be the next generation will be much smarter than us – just a wish and hope.

Abdul-Rahman Ntaganda