The curriculum used in Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) has been changed from knowledge based to competency based in a bid to help students acquire the skills they need.

This comes after the Government announced more incentives to encourage students to join the teaching profession.

Among the incentives that have been proposed include scholarships for students to pursue graduate and undergraduate studies in education.

Under the new curriculum, which is being implemented starting this academic year, TTC graduates who perform well will teach for three years before being offered scholarships to study for undergraduate degrees and five years before they can apply for master’s degrees in education.

Irenée Ndayambaje, Director General of REB, said that the curriculum was repackaged in order to equip TTC students with more skills to continue their studies at university level, saying that the previous curriculum restricted them to teaching in primary schools and limited them from accessing university studies.

Joan Murungi, the Head of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Resources Department at REB, said; "We changed the curriculum completely from knowledge based to competency based curriculum and repackaged it so that the academic year for student teachers is aligned with that of upper secondary,” she said.

She added that the difference in teaching periods slightly differs because TTC students also learn teaching methodology courses.

Previously, TTC students also studied social studies, which combined a set of subjects and we separated them and now they study each subject exhaustively, she said.

"We also separated major courses students learn with teaching methodologies so that learners get more time to concentrate on each of them, we have started this year and we will be assessing the progress of new curriculum,” she added.

Yves Murihira, the headmaster of TTC Rubengera, said that the old curriculum was shallow and could not help to acquire necessary skills.

"This is good news and students are excited, they believe that this time around best performers will be rewarded and be able to access university unlike previously when they had a task of teaching,” he added

He said that, through the review, the main courses were allocated longer periods while some subjects were merged.

editorial@newtimesrwanda.com