Whenever time comes for holidays, teachers are supposed to reach out to various centers in the country for training specifically in the English language. Because of the new transition, teachers need thorough training and that is why the Ministry of Education oganises special training at the end of every school term, after which the trainees prepare to train at their centers. This practically means that those teachers meant to train are not supposed to have holidays at all. Well it is good to have such training as you put them and we gain a lot from them. However, I am deeply shocked to witness teachers doing placement tests for three consecutive times without having their results back. I think people who designed these tests can still prepare another set of tests to avoid monotony. Still, if the tests are meant to test the teacher’s capability, then let it serve the purpose. It might be tempting to point an accusing finger at the supervisor’s failure to administer the whole project, but there is more to it than meets the eye. If the project’s core objective is to promote English fluency among Rwandan teachers, then the whole issue leaves a lot to be desired. Yes you are training trainees but the biggest challenge is that those who will be sent out to train others also lack fluency in English. The fact that learning is a gradual process does not necessarily mean placing wrong people in the right place. The criterion used for selecting trainees was not so appropriate. We have very good trainers; however, they lack trainees. I am afraid there are many good English-speaking schools in Rwanda but we can’t make good use of them. The training has noble educational objectives that necessitate proper understanding of the language that one ought to use. But aren’t we going to provide poison to our patients instead of giving out the antidote? The challenges faced by this entire training point to a loophole in the training system that allows more room for blame than taking action. I am also wondering whether there is supervision in the schools to check whether these primary teachers are trained when they get back to their schools. Whichever way we look at it, all training sessions and centers should be monitored and evaluated where monitoring should be carried out more professionally with clear guidelines, objectives and timelines. The author is a teacher at Kagarama secondary schoolshebs10@yahoo.com
