Rwandan educators attribute good performance in the 2013 primary and secondary national examinations to reforms and government commitment to quality education.

According to Ministry of Education officials, the results for 2013 academic year for both primary and ordinary level exams — a pass rate of 84 per cent — was impressive compared with the past four years.

While 2012 recorded an 83 per cent pass, 2011 and 2010 academic years scored 82 and 82.5 per cent respectively, compared with 2009 where the pass rate was 68 per cent.

The past academic year saw a total of 173,336 students register for the primary leaving examination but only 163,092 sat for the exam; while 96,479 registered for the O’ level exams, but only 93,889 students sat for the exams.

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Teachers cited poor health and failure to meet exam requirements as main reasons behind students not sitting exams they had registered for.

Changes and reforms that took place previously include the adoption of English as medium for instruction, availability of scholastic materials, provision of free midday meal; hiring only qualified teachers and the implementation of 9- and 12-year basic education programme.

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According to 2015 Education Sector Strategic Plan, 97 per cent of public primary teachers are qualified, whereas just 48 per cent of public secondary teachers (lower and upper) are qualified.

“There is a lot to associate with good grades among students. After the rollout of 9- and 12-year basic education, the government embarked on a teaching and learning process suitable for this generation, with teachers being facilitated financially to execute their duties,” said Charles Kalisa, an assistant lecturer at the Rwanda Tourism University.

Mr Kalisa said teachers were motivated by a raise in their salary. Over the past five years, teachers’ salaries increased by 10 per cent, making an A2 teacher’s take-home salary Rwf27,012; an A1 teacher gets Rwf89,000 while a bachelor degree holder takes Rwf113,000, according to the Ministry of Public Service and Labour.

“Although the public questioned the relevance of reforms, today parents can see that the future of their children is brighter,” Mr Kalisa added.

According to Moses Awany, a social studies teacher at Kigali Parents School (KPS), a private school that has maintained high scores in primary school exams, the education system has seen more co-operation between stakeholders.

“At KPS, the impressive performance has been driven by fruitful co-operation between teachers, students and parents; students commitment; individual attention to students and enforcement of studying disciplines,” he said.

Mr Awany also attributed the school’s good performance to flexibility in the teaching and learning process, where a teacher is only allowed to teach one subject.

KPS has, for over the past three academic years, been posting a distinction in performance with the top students scoring the highest aggregate.

“Both the overall top student and the top girl student came from our school with 5/5 score on aggregate (beyond 95 per cent),” he added.

Although girls have been performing well in science, fewer female senior six students featured among the best candidates in general sciences.

Girls shine

Director General of the Rwanda Education Board John Rutayisire, said girls in private schools were among the best performers.

“But that is a small sample of 10 best candidates; you may find that after those candidates, there is a higher number girls in sciences scoring slightly below the distinction,” Rutayisire said.

Among the reforms, several programmes (pre-primary to tertiary) were undertaken as the government sought not only to match regional standards but also to improve quality of education.

Mid last year, the government decreed that kindergarten students across the country learn in their native language — an order many parents criticised as too old-fashioned.

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Although it came late, the just launched review of the curricular was done to attain quality-driven educational targets and enable the country to stand its ground in a competitive regional environment.

The current syllabus has been criticised for its failure to generate skills required at the job market.