Like it has been, most of the best students have been shunning away from pursuing teaching as a profession. Very few have desired to take it on as a course at university. Those who pursue science and TVET subjects and get excellent grades, often join careers such as medicine, engineering and others but not teaching. According to education experts, those with lower grades were the ones joining the teaching career, yet this profession requires passionate teachers with excellent grades in order to produce quality education. It is in this context that Rwanda Education Board and partners such as Inspire Educate and Empower Rwanda (IEE) launched a new drive “Teaching Assistants Program,” to stimulate the interest of the best students from high school to join the teaching career at university, through early mentoring and coaching on basic teaching skills. According to Nelson Mbarushimana, the Director General of Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), the development is in line with increasing quality education. “We need passionate teachers with required skills to increase quality education. Therefore the selected candidates are those who got best grades in national exams. We urge them to continue teaching career in universities. Those are the best candidates for the teaching profession in the near future,” he says. He says the teaching assistants have also been provided with laptops as part of teaching materials to facilitate them. Denise Irasubiza, one of the best high school graduates serving as an assistant teacher in Rubavu district under the support of this project, first received coaching before she started teaching as an assistant four months ago. She says the coaching equipped her with confidence and public speaking skills, and that this has helped her embrace this profession. “It has also raised my interest in teaching. I now can pursue a teaching course at university. I realised that could be the best way of boosting quality education,” she says. Peace Imani, another best high school graduate working as an assistant teacher in Kicukiro District testifies that the exercise has roused his interest in the teaching profession. He graduated from high school with a score of 73 in the subjects of science, chemistry and biology. “My parents were in the teaching career but I never liked it. It is only after I started teaching as an assistant that I realised how much I enjoyed it. It immediately paved the way for a teaching career. I am now thinking of joining the teaching course with my university studies,” Imani says. These testimonies are among 3,000 teaching assistants, of whom 2,100 are female. At least 70 percent are deployed to teach STEM and 30 percent to teach humanities. The selected teaching assistants are some of the best students who graduated from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in high school. The recruited candidates should have scored 50-73 aggregate in national exams. IEE Country Director, Emmanuel Murenzi says that the teaching assistantships project is aimed at supporting Rwanda with skills’ nurturing for passionate young people, with an interest in education- attracting them especially women, to join the teaching profession to support education especially science, technology and mathematics. “This could help in the generation of teachers and leaders contributing to quality teaching and learning,” he says. Murenzi says that 116 host teachers were trained to coach the teaching assistants. “We are experiencing good results because in 2019, at least 39 best students out of 150 who were serving as teaching assistants switched to teaching career at university, teaching colleges,” he says. Over 196 teaching assistant mentors in 580 schools are expected to coach the needed teaching assistants. So far 310 teaching assistants have been recruited and deployed in schools for 8-month teaching assistantships in 116 schools across the country.
