Parents Have Been Urged to Embark On the Second Phase of the Construction of Classrooms for the Nine Year Basic Education (9-YBEO) program for the 2011 academic year.

The call was made yesterday by Warren Habimana, the coordinator of the project, in a phone interview with The New Times.

According to Habimana, there has been slow progress with the construction since it started in May.

"This year's construction campaign did not receive as much attention from the public as the previous one," Habimana said, adding that on average, a country-wide report shows that construction is at the foundation level.The second phase of the 9-YBE will cater for the promotion of the second batch of children studying under the programme.

The programme began with the 2009 academic year.

9-YBE was introduced by the government mainly to reduce the rate of secondary school drop outs; as they have to attend the first part of their secondary studies at the schools where they completed free primary education.

"This year's campaign will see the construction of 2,984 classrooms around the country," Habimana said.

During the 2009 campaign, a total of 3, 172 classrooms were built.

The government has set aside Rwf14.84 billion for this year's construction campaign against an estimated Rwf21bn. The rest of the contribution is expected to come from the general public.

Similar to last year, the government will provide construction materials like iron sheets, steel bars, cement while the general public will contribute labour and any other needed support.