Rwanda Investigation Bureau on Tuesday arrested Solomon Habinshuti, an official at Rwanda Education Board (REB), over soliciting a bribe in an ongoing process to recruitment and placement of teachers in public schools. Also arrested was one of the applicants who bribed Habinshuti in order to be considered in the placement among successful candidates. Habinshuti is accused of taking the bribe and then forging marks for the candidate to show they passed an interview yet in actual sense he had failed, according to the investigation body. RIB has announced that investigation continues so that more individuals who received corruption to alter marks for candidates, can be apprehended. The development follows the suspension of other three top officials at REB for failing to co-ordinate the ongoing teacher recruitment process. The top officials that were suspended by Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente the institution’s Director-General, Irenee Ndayambaje, his deputy, Angelique Tumusiime and James Ngoga, the Head of Teacher Development and Management at the institution. A schools reopened, concerns emerged that teachers who had passed their entry exams and awaiting placement to respective schools, were stranded after more than three months. The ministry of education intervened to revamp placement where a total of 6,405 teachers were recruited while the ministry still needs over 18,000 teachers. More teachers complain However, more details have emerged that some teachers were recruited and placed in positions through fraudulent means. “Teachers in Nyabihu district need advocacy since they are victims of corruption in the recruitment process. There is an issue of forging marks for some teachers so that they get jobs,” said a teacher who is yet to be placed but preferred anonymity. The source gave an example of a teacher who scored 14.1 marks out of 20 but was given 17.84 marks to be able to get job placement as a teacher of languages. The source said that some teachers are paying as much as Rwf300,000 in bribes so as to get the job. “Some district education officers have deployed brokers that are facilitating these fraudulent and illegal transactions. We really need RIB to dig deeper in Nyabihu district,” the source added.
