Paul Ntambara
22 December 2006
Rwamagana — Students enrolled under the distance learning programme since 2001 have protested the delayed completion of their courses and what they termed as the general poor handling of the programme by authorities.
In a letter titled 'A unique diploma fails' and seen by The New Times, the students lament the long duration they have spent pursuing their courses under difficult conditions.
One student who chose to remain anonymous disclosed that the programme which was meant to last three years has trudged on and is now entering its sixth year.
"We signed a contract of three years running from November 2001 - November 2004. We were supposed to have completed our diploma courses by the end of these three years. Kigali Institute of Education authorities have continued to delay the completion of the programme giving us many lame excuses," he said.
Students also complain about insufficient time during residential face -to- face lectures.
"Between the months of May and June, we were always supposed to have ten days of lectures. In November, Science subject students were always supposed to have 30 days of face-to-face lectures and 14 for Arts students. These were never always respected. Lecture days were always reduced to 20 and 12 respectively," a source said.
Delayed results
Students also revealed that end of year results were always delayed despite numerous pleas to have them in time. This has come to affect many of them negatively.
"We were given exam results a go after five years. The unfortunate part of it is that some students have been told to repeat year one and two at the same time. Others have been told to repeat year one when they have already passed year two," a source said adding that as a result many are doing supplementary exams while others prepare to graduate in January. Students claim that the last four modules for English language, French, Education, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics were given to them but never had face - face lectures.
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