Agaju Madugba
5 August 2004
Kaduna — The Rwandan Government has asked Nigeria to assist in the development of that country's education system. The visiting Rwandan Minister of Education Science, Technology and Research, Prof. Romain Murenzi, lamented the low level of educational development in his country, with less than 10,000 university graduates, including holders or masters and doctorate degrees.
Murenzi who is in the country at the instance of President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke when he visited the National Teachers' Institute (NTI), to seek collaboration in the development or distance education for Rwanda.
With a population of eight million people, the Minister said the Rwandan genocide of 1994 had inflicted enormous damage on the country's education as several teachers including professors were slaughtered while others fled the country.
According to him, government was in the process of establishing a national commission for higher education, a national trust fund, a bursary fund as well as an academy of science and technology, all of which would require input from established educational institutions and allied bodies in Nigeria.
He regretted further that the National University of Rwanda, established since 1963, was able to produce only 2,000 graduates over a period of 30 years.
NTI director Dr. Ahmed Modibbo Mohammed, said the institute had upgraded over 500,000 sub-grade teachers since 1984 with an additional 64,367 who had obtained the National Certificate in Education (NCE) through distance learning.
According to him, "the institute has been selected as the lead institution to implement the ECOWAS fast track programme on teacher training by open distance learning.
"This programme is aimed at assisting the ECOWAS member countries to meet their teacher demand and teacher improvement for education for All (EFA) through the use of open and distance learning techniques."
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