EASTERN PROVINCE GATSIBO — They flocked to their respective schools on Monday eager to see their results but they left school disappointed. They moved out the offices with gloomy faces after seeing that they had returned poor results. The delay in the arrival of results in the upcountry schools did not help the situation; it just increased anxiety. Out of 2,072 students who sat for ordinary level exams in Gatsibo, only 405 passed with an average of 19.5 percent. The remaining 1,667 students failed to attain the pass mark. The Ministry of Education and the Rwanda National Examination Council pass mark was 38 percent for primary and 3.6 for ordinary level. There are now a staggering number of students who may be forced to either repeat or continue with their studies in other private schools in the country. In primary schools, 2,939 pupils failed to pass their primary leaving examinations, according to statistics from the district. Poor performance of pupils in the country today could be attributed to so many factors that include lack of teaching staff, resource materials and laboratories. Other reasons may include low teacher wages, lack of housing for teachers and failure by some parents to play their role in modeling their children’s behavior. Most teachers commute long distances from their homes to school daily. This has affected the performance of teachers due to late coming and at times absenteeism. Some never teach morning lessons at all. Due to poor remuneration from their jobs, they have lost morale needed to facilitate extensive research and this is reflected in students’ performance. Most qualified teachers have abandoned the profession for other jobs where they can get a reasonable income to make ends meet. There many students from poor families that can barely cater for all their needs while others hail from child headed families; such factors combined erode pupils’ morale to study. This calls for all responsible citizens to heed the campaign of the First Lady Jeanette Kagame to return hope to such children by handling every child as your own. Failure to reassure such children will certainly affect their concentration at school. Poverty has led many of the students to engage in part-time employment which also makes them miss school on several days. Such students should attend school regularly.Parents should also be more involved in the education of their children and not leave the responsibility to teachers alone. Most parents because of commitment don’t bother to follow the performance of their children yet they would guide the children and or help. Ends
