After switching to English as a language of instruction in Rwanda, many schools have opened their doors to teach English.
However, the lack of teachers and lack of learning as well as teaching materials are hinder attainment of the Government’s target says one head of Kigali English School.
Switching is that Rwanda officially joined East African Community in 2007, and later on in October 2008 switched from French to English as one of the languages of instruction.
In November 2009, another change occurred when Rwanda was officially admitted into the Commonwealth group of nations.
Living and working in these blocs require a certain level of knowledge in English language.
Rwanda being a francophone country for many years needed Rwandans to adapt to English to compete within the dominantly Anglophone regional bloc and in the world. This has encouraged people to learn English.
Since then many public and private English language schools have been founded in Rwanda.
Meanwhile Jean Fiacre Haliyamutu a headteacher of an English Language School (IELS) notes that there are still some challenges to achieve this goal.
“Despite some challenges including; shortage of qualified teachers, lack of teaching and expensive learning materials, most of the people learning English don’t feel comfortable when they have an opportunity of using such language.
“I advise people to reset their minds and understand that when learning a foreign language making mistakes is a natural thing, however, to overcome this challenge people need to practice a lot. Look for the best schools before joining any to learn English”.
IELS started in 2004 offering general English courses, Business English, and Professional courses such as Medical English, Military English, Aviation English, Tourism English and Legal English.
The school coach’s people who want to take TOEFL and IELTS the IELS has a language laboratory equipped with software of teaching English.
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