Teachers in general education schools—particularly—Nine and Twelve Year Basic Education schools, have said that lack of well-established standard laboratories is still a challenge in terms of ensuring quality education through different experiments carried out in quality laboratories.
In 2009, a Nine-Year Basic Education Policy (9YBE) was introduced in order to ensure that every child in Rwanda had access to three years of lower secondary education from senior one to senior three.
Following the successful implementation of the Nine-Year Basic Education, the Government of Rwanda put in place the Twelve-Year Basic education (12YBE) programme which started in February 2012.
However, teachers and students say that these schools have no standard science laboratories like other schools of excellence do.
Emmanuel Pacifique Habamungu is a biology teacher at G.S Miyove in Gicumbi District. He says, "Lack of standard laboratories is also an issue in our school. We try to use a few science kits but they are not enough because there is no laboratory. To cope with the situation, we think ICT devices can play a role. Using computers and smartphones could help teachers use YouTube to demonstrate to students the experiments in lessons for which they do not have such kits,” he says.
He adds that ICT devices could help them carry out more research on science experiments so as to improve students’ performance.
Jane Uwamariya, a teacher in Ruhango District adds, "ICT tools in teaching biology, chemistry, and physics are needed. We always need to conduct experiments which require downloading videos that demonstrate the experiments we need,” she says.
26 per cent of schools have standard laboratories
Fabien Habimana, Director of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Research at Ministry of Education, says that in order to ensure quality education, teachers and learners must-have books, laboratories, and computers, but there is still a gap.
"We have been establishing standard laboratories in some schools. However, we are still at a level that is not satisfactory. We are only at 26 per cent that provides general education. This 26 per cent means well-established laboratories for physics, biology, and chemistry,” he says.
Meanwhile, he says, the Ministry of Education has deployed science kits in schools that are yet to get standard laboratories.
"These are few tools put in one room at school so that students use them in experiments, especially in nine-and-twelve-year education schools because most schools of excellence have standard laboratories. It is quite a long journey and the government will continue to invest in standard laboratories,” Habimana says.
Currently, he says, nine-and-twelve-year education schools are focused on boosting quality education.
He says that over 50 per cent of general education students join science and technology options in secondary schools but standard laboratories are still few.