Both students and professors in universities are still struggling with their English language skills, which are a constant challenge.

Winnie Mukandayisenga, a level-2 student in Foundation Education at KIE, describes her challenges as a non-native English speaker: "With a francophone background I had to create ways to develop my English skills besides the consistent English course at college. I attend several special trainings and read enough material on my own to overcome language difficulties".

She says that if she had not put in the extra effort, English would have been a serious barrier to her future career as an educator.

Theory-heavy courses seem to be the hardest for students and teachers. "Last year, most students failed a course called Engineering Economics and Finance. The class was more theoretical and we could not understand due to language difficulties, so most students retook the course," said Fred Manzi, a class representative at KIST in civil Engineering.

Students need a person to proofread and correct grammatical errors in their work. At Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), the English Department participates in the presentation of dissertations of all departments, to evaluate weaknesses and check what language skills should be focused on for incoming students.

Tom Nzaramba, a distance-learning officer at KIST said, "In research projects, if a supervisor is not able help with professional English, students seek support from their fellow colleagues or consult outsiders, who sometimes charge money. But the Directorate of Continuous Training and Communication unit (DCTC) is ready to eliminate such circumstances".

Nzaramba notes that such cases have declined since DCTC began helping students and lecturers to master English in 2008. DCTC also provides weekly, monthly and annual reports on how language is progressing according to a student's performance.

Continuous assessment

The KIST director of DCTC John-Baptist Rusine explained the challenges with technical English, terminology that is used in specific study disciplines, and is also known as "English for specific purposes". To help students deal with this technical, academic English, DCTC developed a framework for improving professional English.

The school places a lot of importance on Continuous Assessment Tests, where students are exposed to more practical working English. This platform has enabled the student to acquire professional English and motivates them to compete with English speakers in the job market.

Rusine also noted the challenges with teachers "We have encountered specialists in their respective areas that are not proficient enough in English. Some have heavy content but poor delivery or good delivery but poor content."

Manzi also noted the English deficiencies of some professors. "Students that are used to local accents tend to be challenged by foreign lecturers. It happens that we miss some important points during a lecture as a result of not being familiar with diverse accents," he said, adding that lecturers that are not proficient in English usually negatively impact the English standards of their students.

Ides Mukama, an assistant lecturer in the Department of Languages and Linguistics, disagrees that the responsibility lies with the professors, believing that the recruitment of lecturers is very strict at KIE. According to Mukama, students are challenged because they do not read enough. There is no spirit of individual research or work ethic. He said, "English is a challenge not because we do not teach it, but the biggest responsibility for learning a language lies on the students, and they lack that commitment. Students do not effectively utilize their time for individual research."

Some students retake English courses at KIST, but this does not prevent them from proceeding with other lessons. Language learning is full-time job. Individual efforts, like those taken by Mukandayisenga, to read, write, and speak English both on and off campus, are an integral piece of learning to professionally use a language.