Members of Parliament have asked the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) to distribute over 13,247 textbooks within three months in order to address persistent gaps in learning materials across the country. ALSO READ: Education board to reduce student-textbook gap by 2025 This is one of the resolutions made on Tuesday, August 5, by members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to five ministries, including the Ministry of Education. ALSO READ: Textbooks worth Rwf1.8 billion rendered ‘useless’ “Issues of delays, which have been recorded in the distribution of books by REB in schools, should be addressed. This should be implemented within three months,” reads one of the resolutions. According to the Auditor General’s report for the fiscal year 2023/24, these textbooks have been lying idle in REB stores since December 2023. The education board has been criticised for delaying approval to print textbooks for teaching and learning purposes. The delays in approval have lasted for more than a year to three years, preventing the printing of textbooks, PAC Chairperson Valens Muhakwa said. In 2023, REB said Rwanda needed Rwf14 billion to ensure that every pupil or student gets a textbook at school to meet the targeted ratio by 2025 and improve learning. In 2023, the Office of the Auditor General, said the insufficiency of textbooks in schools was a major problem, pointing out that auditors observed cases where one book was shared by 176 students. At Groupe Scolaire Nyabimata in Nyaruguru, for example, a book was being shared by 147 children, the Office of the Auditor General found. This situation reflects broader challenges, including the underutilisation of public assets in various institutions. As of June 2024, idle assets valued at Rwf7.9 billion remained in government stores, although this was down from Rwf15 billion in 2023.
