The Chamber of Deputies has resolved to call the Minister of Education to provide answers for issues related to teacher placement in schools. Of the 12,461 teachers who were to be placed in schools in different districts, only 11,795 were placed-accounting for 94.6 percent. This means that 666 teachers, equivalent to 5.4 percent, were not present in schools. The chamber adopted the resolution on April 28, 2022 as it approved its Committee on Social Affairs’ assessment of the 2020/2021 report of the National Public Service Commission (NPSC). “There was an issue of inadequate number of teachers compared to the needed number,” said MP Odette Uwamariya, the Committee Chairperson. “This problem is against quality education because during our visits, we realised that [at some schools] students spend one year or two years without studying [given courses]. So, we concluded that it should be dealt with as a matter of urgency,” she said. According to the report, the NPSC carried out an inspection in six districts with aim to know how teachers were recruited and managed in compliance with the March 2020 Presidential Order, establishing special statutes governing teachers in nursery, primary, secondary and technical and vocational schools, and the October 2020 Law establishing the general statute governing public servants. Other issues identified include some teachers having no qualification documents in the district records. Among the six inspected districts, Nyanza and Rubavu Districts had qualification documents for all teachers. However, there was a lack of such documentation for some teachers in four districts, namely Huye, Ngoma, Nyarugenge and Rulindo. Indeed, 577 out of the 11,795 placed teachers had no qualification documents. According to the report, the situation where some teachers had no documentation was attributed to the fact that human resource managers were not effectively fulfilling their responsibilities. The Commission requested that districts having such a problem indicate how they were employed and the underlying factors for that. It is to note that in the 2019/2020 activity report, the Commission indicated that 1,566 teachers in public schools were working without legal documents putting them in the positions they occupied.
