200 attend English course

EASTERN PROVINCE RWAMAGANA- A total of 200 primary and secondary teachers drawn from different schools in Rulindo and Gicumbi districts, are attending an English training course at St. Aloys Secondary School in Rwamagana. The training was organised by the Ministry of Education. Trainees who talked to The New Times observed that they would be in a better position to address the challenges they have been facing while teaching English as a subject. “Teaching languages remain complex. We are now shifting to a new approach which is centred around the learners,” Ruth Mukakimenyi, the Inspector of Education in charge learning and teaching English in Kigali city said. The Ministry of Education recently hired some teachers from Uganda to specifically teach English. Most of them are serving a two year contract. “We were given two year contracts. I came from Uganda where I was doing a similar job,” Asiimwe Enock, one of the hired teachers said. Both the trainees and their teachers cited lack of teaching materials as their challenges. “There are very few teaching materials and text books. The books that we are using are also very old fashioned. We need to get up to date text books,” one trainer said. Joseph Tumwesige, a teacher in Gicumbi, told this reporter that there is need to equip schools with more English text books as the libraries they have are ill equipped. Ends