Why Kigali’s students fail: Lessons, leadership, oversight under scrutiny

Over half of Kigali’s O-Level students failed national exams this year, raising alarm among educators. Stakeholders from across the city therefore convened in Gasabo District on Wednesday, December 10, to discuss the underperformance of a number of primary and secondary schools. ALSO READ: National Exams: Five key takeaways from A-Level results The meeting, informed by the 2024-2025 exam results and a subsequent citywide assessment, sought to understand why some city schools continued to register high failure rates. It also came after an October supervision exercise undertaken after A-Level results were released on September 1 and Primary and Ordinary Level results were released on August 19. ALSO READ: Kayonza schools lead in A-Level national exams Data showed disparities across districts and confirmed that 56 schools that failed this year were also among the 68 that underperformed in 2023-2024. Officials also discussed the decline in O-Level performance. Out of 15,352 O-Level candidates citywide, 8,405 failed, leaving only 6,947 able to attain the minimum 50 per cent pass mark. Equally troubling, 56 of the 125 schools that presented candidates did not achieve the required pass rate. Gasabo District, which registered the largest number of candidates, emerged among the weakest performers. Sixty-one schools enrolled 7,511 students for the examinations, but only 27 schools met the pass mark while 34 schools failed. ALSO READ: Pass rate for A-Level national exams up by 10% Just 2,696 students passed, compared to 4,815 failures, producing a 47.1 per cent pass rate. In Nyarugenge District, 29 schools sat for the exams. Fifteen schools failed to attain the pass mark, and only 14 succeeded. Of the 4,182 candidates, 2,852 failed, leaving only 1,330 to meet the 50 per cent threshold. The district posted a 46.1 per cent pass rate. Kicukiro District, though comparatively stronger, still recorded setbacks. Among the district’s 35 schools, six failed to meet the pass mark, while 29 succeeded. Out of 3,659 candidates, 2,921 passed and 738 failed, giving the district a pass rate of 63.3 per cent. ALSO READ: Five key highlights from the 2023/24 S6 national exam results At A-Level, 10,168 candidates sat for national exams. In Kicukiro District, 3,338 candidates were registered, with 3,102 passing and 236 failing; one of its 28 schools did not achieve the required pass mark. In Gasabo, 3,020 candidates sat, and 234 failed, while two schools did not meet the pass threshold. Nyarugenge District’s 22 schools all achieved the pass rate, though 332 of its 3,810 candidates did not attain the minimum score. An in-depth assessment was conducted in 65 recurrently underperforming schools, using nine metrics including teaching practices, curriculum coverage, school leadership, resource use, mentorship, counselling programmes, and teacher competence. Several critical issues emerged. These included the promotion of illegible learners, weak teaching preparation and inadequate instructional practice, and limited school leadership oversight. As regards the promotion of learners who score below the national 50 per cent pass requirement, schools in the failure cohort were found to promote learners in non-candidate classes despite insufficient academic grades. This practice, as noted, ultimately becomes evident when learners sit for national exams. Martine Urujeni, the City of Kigali Vice Mayor in charge of Social and Economic Affairs, underscored the seriousness of the situation, emphasizing that strict compliance with learners’ promotion standards is essential to prevent systemic weaknesses from compounding year after year. “We wish to remind you that your foremost responsibility is to equip learners with knowledge and quality education that enables them to progress meaningfully from one level to the next,” she told teachers, school head teachers, district education officers and other stakeholders. “We celebrate the milestones, but there are also alarming gaps that require our joint commitment to address if we are to realise the outcomes we aspire to.” The assessment also found that many teachers deliver lessons without lesson plans. The lack of structured planning undermines effective teaching, consistency, and accountability. Worse still, the assessment found that active learning methodologies were widely neglected. ALSO READ: National exams: Over 75% pass PLE, 64% pass O-Level Classroom management emerged as another major challenge, particularly due to unfair subject distribution. Directors of studies in schools were found to assign limited workloads to certain teachers while overloading others, contributing to imbalance, burnout, and inconsistent academic outcomes. Inadequate school leadership Weak supervision by school leaders was another critical factor. Head teachers were found to rarely observe classroom sessions or monitor adherence to teaching schedules, giving room for inconsistent practices and lax accountability. Furthermore, it was found out, teachers who fail to meet responsibilities reportedly face little or no disciplinary action. Underuse of remedial programmes Despite the Ministry of Education’s guidelines on remedial teaching, many schools either do not implement the programme or fail to execute it adequately. In 2024, Rwanda introduced a remedial learning programme, which gives primary school pupils who scored below 50 per cent in their end-of-year exams a second chance to get promoted. Rather than automatically repeating their respective classes, these learners are granted an opportunity to catch up through a one-month remedial learning programme conducted during the school holidays. ALSO READ: How remedial learning 'gives every child a fair chance to succeed' Overcrowded classrooms was also cited as a challenge, though the assessment noted that some high-performing schools face similar constraints yet still achieve strong results. Charles Karakye, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, noted that Rwanda’s education system is undergoing a critical transformation. He said: “Every country’s education system evolves through phases. We initially prioritised access, ensuring education for all. “We are now transitioning into an era where quality, anchored in discipline is paramount.” Although classroom overcrowding remains a challenge, he said, it cannot be used to justify persistent underperformance. Karakye noted that while the double-shift system is still necessary to accommodate large numbers of students, high enrolment alone does not determine exam outcomes. He highlighted an example from Kirehe District, where a school with between 6,000 and 8,000 learners saw every student surpass the 50 per cent pass mark. “This demonstrates that large numbers alone do not dictate poor results,” he said, emphasizing that strong leadership, effective teaching, and proper management are the real drivers of student success.

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Why Kigali’s students fail: Lessons, leadership, oversight under scrutiny