Using church buildings and constructing new classrooms are among strategies that the Government and religious organisations will use to raise pre-primary education from about 20 per cent currently to 45 percent by 2024. The approach was adopted Thursday in Kigali during a workshop on developing a partnership between government and faith-based institutions for scaling-up access to quality pre-primary education. Under the Government’s seven-year National Strategy for Transformation (2017-2024),there is a plan to empower human capital resources in line with having a knowledge-based society. For Rwanda to ensure a future of well-trained and skilled workforce, it needs to start with healthy lives and quality education of its young people, just from birth and pre-primary level, said the Minister of State in Charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr. Isaac Munyakazi. Abbot Janvier Nduwayezu, Director of National Catholic Church Education Secretariat (SNEC), who represented both the Catholic and Anglican Churches, said that both churches committed to open 400 rooms each which will be offering pre-primary education to children starting next academic year. “Before we start we want to reach 1,000 priests and pastors so they can understand the purposes and principles of early child education and how it can be done,” he said. Early Childhood Development Centre Coordinator at Shyira Diocese, Evariste Ndengejeho, said they started with changing the mindset of people towards early childhood development so that they understand its importance in the growth of a child. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
