Francophonie group to offer vocational expertise

Education Minister Dr. Charles Murigande said Wednesday that he welcomed Technical and Vocational Education expertise from the organization of French-speaking countries – l’Organisation Internationale de la francophonie (OIF). Murigande made the remarks shortly after meeting with the visiting OIF Administrator – Clément Duhaime, who arrived in the country yesterday for a two-day visit. “The administrator came to find out how we are doing in education and what role OIF can play in our education,” Murigande revealed. “Our country would be happy to get their expertise in developing our own TVET [Technical and Vocational Education and Training] system”. Relatively new in Rwanda, the TVET system is an internationally recommended hands-on training approach which integrates all education systems, specifically the technical and vocational aspects. “Francophonie, has a wide network of universities and most of our universities are members – we exchange lecturers and do benefit from scholarships,” Murigande added. Duhaime said that Rwanda has always been an important IOF member and that the principal aim of his visit was to “examine together with the minister the path we have taken and concretely look at what we will do together.” He said that OIF has well-known expertise, especially TVET, which they deem very important in the development of the country, Duhaime and his delegation also visited Kigali Memorial Centre at Gisozi. The team will travel to the National Museum of Butare, in Huye District and inaugurate the new Itorero Centre in Nyamagabe, today. Ends