The Government, through the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) is set to recruit over 12,000 teachers for both primary and secondary level. The move is aimed at boosting the career progression of teachers and also ensure competitiveness of schools, which will have an impact on the quality of education offered. The best teachers will be selected from the 22,453 who sat for the exam between July 12 and 15 and were conducted from 24 sites all over the country. The best candidates will be distributed in public and government-aided pre-primary, primary and secondary schools across the country. Léon Mugenzi, the Head of Teacher Development, Management, Career Guidance, and Counselling Department at REB said that, “Recruiting new skillful teachers’ leaders is one of the ways to improve the quality education because if you have enough you can expect a productive education.” According to Mugenzi, 18,271 candidates sat for an online written exam and 13,670 were successful, but they only had 12,536 slots available from districts this coming school year 2022-2023. “So, we have taken this approach that will lead us to the education outcomes that we want, he said. According to the World Bank research conducted in 2019, school leadership accounts for up to 25 per cent of students’ learning achievements. However, according to the report conducted in Africa, school leadership level is often forgotten during education reforms in spite of the potential for impacting the success of students. In the ongoing job examinations for school leaders in Rwanda, teachers are examined on academic subjects, but also crucial leadership skills including teacher management, and school management. According to the teacher’s statute n° 10 of 16/03/2020, other requirements for a teacher to be a school leader include being in the teaching profession for at least nine years, outstanding professional ethics, and integrity. Others cited in the statute are having outstanding performance records and the second category of teachers in the respective level of formal education. According to UNESCO school leaders’ salaries are typically higher than those of school teachers. But, in general, the small difference does not reflect the school leaders’ workload. The 12,536 successful applicants will start off with the new academic year that begins in September.
