Political parties, gov’t meet over education

Heads of all political parties operating in the country, yesterday met with the State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr. Mathias Harebamungu, to discuss the way forward for the Education-for-all government policy. Harebamungu told the politicians that the government aims to have all children in the country access Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015. “Our focus is to improve on the quality of education in the country because we want, by 2015, to have every child access education,” Harebamungu said at the meeting that took place at the offices of the Forum for Political Organisations here in Kigali. “Education quality as measured by standard indicators such as the ratios of pupil-to-teacher, pupils-to-classroom and the number of pupils per textbook which have improved since the implementation of UPE started.” “In the Education-for-all policy, we are going to engage the youth and the elders to attain education as a means of eradicating illiteracy in our country”. “There is a remarkable step that has been taken in attaining the Millennium Development Goals especially the UPE goal and the promotion of gender equality in schools,” he stressed. Protais Mitali, the chairman of Liberal Party, requested the Education Ministry to put more emphasis on civic education in private and public schools. ‘Our children have low knowledge regarding the social studies of the country,” said Mitali, who is also the Minister of Youth. He further requested for a strengthened inculcation of discipline among school children and their teachers, which he said will promote quality education in schools. Francois Ngarambe, the Secretary General of Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), said that education for all should be relevant and useful to the beneficiaries. “Science education should be the number one priority in Education-for-all because it is vital towards enhancing ICT in Rwanda,” he noted. On her part, Agnes Mukabaranga, the president of the Centrist Democratic Party (PDC) requested the ministry to introduce nursery schools in all sectors in the country in order to groom infants before they join primary schools. Ends

National

Political parties, gov’t meet over education