The government is accessing the viability of a new 12 year Basic Education for Africa Program (BEAP), igihe.com has reliably learnt.
The education strategy was revealed at a three day international conference that brought together representatives of the United Nations Education Science and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and several Rwanda’s executives in education sector at Lemingo Hotel in Kigali.
The Conference that hosted UNESCO representatives from Senegal, Mali, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Niger evaluated the strategic planning of BEAP scheme as well as scrutinizing the challenges that hinder the progress on its implementation in Africa.
The UNESCO delegates unanimously observed that Rwanda had successfully undertaken this project with very positive results though there was still room for improvement.
Rwanda’s Director General at the Ministry of Education in charge of primary education Narcisse Musabyeyezu pointed out that: “The 9 year basic education program started in 2007 and was introduced because the six were not enough to eliminate the levels of illiteracy in the country”.
He emphatically stressed that the results have been positive with more than 80 per cent of pupils now completing primary school while prior to the implementation of the new program, not more than 5o per cent were able to proceed to secondary school.
“Despite that we are still facing some constraints in this program due to the need for more skilled human resources in terms of teachers and resources in the form of book supplies, especially in the upper secondary” Musabyeyezu pointed out.
He argued that due to the scheme, pupils’ passing their O’level exams and enrolling at the High school has doubled from 56,000 to 104,000 according to current statistics.
He, however, observed that the 12 year basic education scheme should not be implemented until 2017 when careful feasibility study will have been carried out in comparison with the current 9 year education program.
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