allAfrica.com: Rwanda: Pan African Parliamentarians to Learn From Education System (Page 1 of 1)

A delegation of the Pan-African Parliament commission on education, culture, tourism and human resources has been on a one week visit to Rwanda on a fact-finding mission on education in the country.

The president of the this commission, Maidagi Allembeye of Niger, explained that the Pan-African Parliament was established as the legislative body of the African Union with the vision to provide a common platform for African people and their grass-roots organizations to be more involved in discussions and decision-making on the problems and challenges facing the continent.

His committee is one of ten of the Parliament which were created to deal with different sectors of life in Africa.

The president further remarked that they chose Rwanda as the first country from which to gather information because it went through conflicts that seriously affected its education system, and yet Rwanda has managed to rehabilitate the system.

"The delegation was here to collect information on the experiences of Rwanda on how it overcame the challenges and solved the problems it encountered in its education system," Maidagi Allambeye said.

He added that they came to know of the best practices and experiences of Rwandans as they plan to visit other countries that also faced conflicts such as Sudan, Liberia and Chad.

The first university visited by the delegation Kigali Institute of Education, where the president of the commission noted that it was an important institution since it is charged with training of teachers. He added that it has an important role to play in implementing the education policies of the government.

The delegation continued its tour at Université Libre de Kigali (ULK), where rector Alphonse Ngagi noted that ULK is a private institution which operates on its own means. This, he said, requires that they sometimes have to be patient and allow gradual payment from students who don't have the capacity to pay the fees at once.

In this context, he mentioned Rwigamba Balinda's Foundation which assists students without financial capacities with a grant without interest. So far, the foundation has helped 1474 students complete their studies.

The rector also remarked that ULK has been growing very rapidly, to the extent where in they have extended their activities to Gisenyi, where the ULK campus now has 2549 students. The university offers courses in management, law and science and technology.

Young and dynamic

One of the questions of members of the Pan-African commission was about the proportion of library material concerning the genocide, to which the rector responded that large volumes of research are carried out by the university students, consultants and staff on the genocide ideology.

One of the ULK lecturers added that they teach a course on conflict management which addresses issues of the Rwandan conflict, as well as a course called Temporary Social Problems which deals with the genocide ideology, drugs and criminal problems, amongst others.

Members of the commission however wondered if the rapid pace at which ULK did not affect the quality of their, to which ULK administrators replied that they make sure that their management is adapted to the increasing number of students who want to join private universities.

During the meeting it was also pointed out that before 1994 some Rwandans were denied the right to go to university on ethnical grounds, but that today there is no more segregation and everyone is free to join institutions of higher education, which has also led to an increase in the number of students.

The commission also visited the large and well-equipped computer lab of ULK.

Maidagi Allembeye remarked to Focus said that one of the findings of this visit was the openness of mind of university staff, who are fully aware of the role they play in providing education to the young generation of Rwanda. "It is truly a young and dynamic university," Allembeye said.

Committed to being educated

The commission later also visited Southern Province, where they obviously stopped at the National University.

The members of the delegation were full of praise for UNR when they compared the terrible past it went through with the loss of about 2000 students and staff during the 1994 genocide, when even lecturers turned against each other.

They were impressed by the way the university has quickly recovered form this past and is now doing very well in terms of educating Rwandans.

The members of the delegation also pointed out that one remarkable observation from these visits was that most Rwandans are committed to being educated.

The president of the commission also explained to Focus that all the information that was gathered during the tour would be compiled into a report which will be submitted in a session of the Parliament in mid May, when there will also be a workshop to make final recommendations based on the information obtained in Rwanda and other African countries they will have visited by then.

"These recommendations will then be passed on to the Pan African Commission in the second session to be held in October or November which after analyzing them in turn will pass them over to the Commission of the African Union," said Maidagi Allembeye.

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