Rwanda

By Paul Bacsich - via Matic Media for Re.ViCa and minor updates via Sero for VISCED. (Paul was on mission to Rwanda for DFID in the early 2000s.)

For entities in Rwanda see Category:Rwanda

Partners and experts in Rwanda

None.

Rwanda in a nutshell

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda)

Rwanda, in full the Republic of Rwanda, known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, is a country located in the Great Lakes region of eastern-central Africa, bordered by Uganda to the north, Burundi to the south, the Congo Democratic Republic to the west and Tanzania to the east. Although close to the equator the country has a cool temperate climate due to its high elevation. (Kigali has an average temperature of 19 degrees Celsius.) The country is slightly smaller than the US state of Massachusetts, or about half the size of Scotland in the UK.

Its population is a little over 10 million.

Its capital is Kigali.

Rwanda is also renowned for its beautiful terrain with mostly grassy uplands and scenic, gently rolling hills. Its abundant wildlife, including the rare mountain gorillas are popular with eco-lovers and tourism has become one of the biggest sectors of the country's economy.

It is not the general policy of Re.ViCa to dwell on the troubled past of countries, but it is impossible to discuss the situation in Rwanda without referring to the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed. (For an entry to this material see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide.)

Source : http://www.cia.gov

Since then the country has made a remarkable recovery and is now considered as a model for developing countries. In 2009 a report labeled Rwanda as "Africa's biggest success story", having achieved stability, economic growth (average income has tripled in the past ten years) and international integration. The government is widely seen as one of the more efficient and honest ones in Africa.

Rwanda is, as of November 2009, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, making the country one of only two in the Commonwealth without a British colonial past.

Rwanda is divided into five provinces (intara) and subdivided into thirty districts (akarere). Four provinces have the unexciting names of North, South, East and West; and the fifth province is Kigali Province.

Most Rwandans speak Kinyarwanda, one of the country's three official languages, and in market towns many people speak Swahili. Educated Rwandans speak French and English. In 2008 the Rwandan government announced that English would become the primary language of instruction in schools, replacing French. This change was initiated "to ensure further integration with the global economic community".

Most Rwandans are Christian, with significant changes since the genocide. A 2006 study reported that some 56% of the population were Catholic and 37% Protestant. Some estimates suggest that the Muslim population of the country is as high as 14% but others suggest levels as low as 5%.

Education in Rwanda

Net primary enrollment rate was at 74 % in 2004. Public expenditure was at 3.8 % of the GDP in 2002-2005.

A significant minority of the adult population of Rwanda is illiterate, particularly women.

Public primary education has become fee-free. Kinyarwanda, French and English are taught generally.

Schools in Rwanda

As of 2003/4 there were 2262 primary and 504 secondary schools in the country. A small subset of these are listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_schools_in_Rwanda

Primary schools

The language used for teaching in the first three years of primary education is Kinyarwanda. In the fourth through sixth years, this becomes English or French.

Secondary Schools

The teaching language is English or French

For further details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Rwanda

Further and Higher education

In the last 10 years there has been a massive expansion of the number of higher education institutions. Currently there are 20 higher education institutions in Rwanda: 6 public and 14 private:

Public

1. National University of Rwanda (established 1963) - http://www.nur.ac.rw
2. Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (established 1998 by UNDP) - http://www.kist.ac.rw
3. Kigali Institute of Education - http://www.kie.ac.rw

and more recently

1. Umutara Polytechnic (established 2004)
2. Kigali Health Institute
3. Higher Agriculture and Veterinary Institute
4. School of Finance and Banking

Private

1. Adventist University of Central Africa
2. Kigali Independent University
3. Kigali Lay Adventist University
4. Gitwe Institute of Education
5. Kibungo University of Agriculture, Technology and Education
6. Kabgayi Catholic University
7. Butare Protestant Theological College
8. International College of Accountancy and Management
9. Nyakibanda Major Seminary
10. Byumba Polytechnic Institute
11. Rwanda Pentecostal University
12. Kigali Professional Institute

Universities in Rwanda

The only public university is the well-established National University of Rwanda, based in Butare in the south of Rwanda.

Private institutions calling themselves "University" include:

1. Adventist University of Central Africa
2. Kigali Independent University
3. Kigali Lay Adventist University
4. Kibungo University of Agriculture, Technology and Education
5. Kabgayi Catholic University

Polytechnics in Rwanda

A number of institutions in the lists above are best thought of as polytechnics, including (but not only) Umutara Polytechnic

Information society

Information society strategy

Rwanda leads the region in terms of ICT adoption and infrastructure development. The country has a 100% mobile telecommunication coverage. Three Mobile phone operators (MTN, RwandaTel and TIGO) provide 3G mobile phone and internet services.

In 2009, WiBro technology was launched in Kigali enabling users to access high speed wireless Internet from any part of the city.

The postal system is mostly reliable. Those wishing to receive post must register and pay for annually, a Post Office Box at the Post Office.

There is one national television station: Rwanda Television which broadcasts feeds from various international broadcasters during the day. The evening programming largely consists of locally produced news programming repeated in Kinyarwanda, English and French.

Subscription-based satellite television is easily available. There are currently two operators: South African based DSTV and China based Star Communications.

ICT in education initiatives

Some years ago the Rwandan government formed a national strategy for information and communications technology ("ICT") aiming to link public institutions of higher education (and later, private institutions) via network then called RWEDNET. There is also hope that this can be expanded to link secondary schools (and potentially, primary schools) together.

There is a shortage of ICT skills at the present time which limits ICT education to tertiary institutions and elite secondary schools.

Rwanda is a participant in the imfundo project (which means “education” in the Ndebele language), a partnership between DFID, large high technology companies, and a number of developing countries. The aim of the project is to raise attainment through distance learning and professional development courses in ICT for teachers. There is hope that advancing the development of these skills will allow Rwanda's economy to grow into new and more profitable areas. This is limited, however, by weaknesses in infrastructure. Many areas lack phone lines, let alone computing facilities. In an effort to improve the situation, the government has been opening telecommunications centers where staff can receive ICT training.

This training is already paying dividends, with many students now being offered well paid (by local standards) part time work. Rwanda could attract business through the bilingual French and English skills many locals have.

In October 2006, the NEPAD e-Africa Commission launched a project to further develop ICT in Rwandan schools. The project will link up schools across Africa, including primary and secondary levels, and is intended to grow; eventually it will incorporate all Rwandan secondary schools.

A lot of work in ICT education is being done by KIST (Kigali Institute of Science and Technology) and the E-ICT Integrated Training Center.

OLPC Rwanda

Rwanda, under the strong conviction of president Paul Kagame, has committed to deploying 100,000 laptops across the country. This is partly supported by a collaboration between the wealthier city schools and the poorer rural schools. OLPC has also set up a major learning center in Rwanda, OLPC-Rwanda, which aims to serve the educational and learning needs of Rwanda and other countries across Africa. See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Rwanda

IT in Higher Education

RwEdNet

RwEdNet, the Rwanda Education and Research Network was conceived in around 2002. It has taken some years to come to fruition. A presentation of its current stage can be found at https://wiki.cac.washington.edu/download/attachments/12405224/1Rwednet_presentation_Nairobi_East_Cluster_meeting_06_Oct_08-2.ppt

RwEdNet also crops up in many other locations, including as the topic in thesis projects at KTH in Sweden - see http://www.tslab.ssvl.kth.se/thesis/projects

Interesting Programmes

National University of Rwanda e-Learning Unit

The National University of Rwanda (NUR) was created in 1963 conjointly by the Rwandan government and the Congregation of the Dominicans from the Province of Quebec (Canada). It was then composed of three academic units: the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Teacher Training College (ENS). At that time, it had 51 students and 16 lecturers. By 2005, the university had 8221 students and 425 lecturers.

The e-Learning Unit is part of the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT). It is an international focal point for e-learning infrastructure and standards development.

Some details follow, taken from http://elearn.nur.ac.rw/

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The Unit consolidates National University’s position at the leading edge of best practice in e-learning.

Through collaborations with educational organisations, government and commercial partners, NUR eLearning unit fosters the adoption of the next generation of distributed e-learning and information systems. NUR eLearning unit’s unique approach fosters innovation and creativity in e-learning software development and implementation driven by open standards.

NUR eLearning unit recognises that no one e-learning system can do everything. The central challenge ahead is unifying different learning and information technologies within a common framework.

In computer based technologies students are helped to think constructively, critically and reflectively. The main aim of the NUR eLearning unit is to bridge the currently existing gap between the advanced, technology enhanced teaching and learning methods in Europe and Rwanda. These advanced teaching methods should enhance the National University teaching staff skills, provide better feedback facilities on students' performance, and afford continuous fruitful monitoring.

Moreover, the elearning environment allows interaction between students and makes student-student and student-teacher synchronous and asynchronous communication possible. Offering learning on demand, and life long learning possibilities to everybody is also an advanced goal of the centre.

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Kigali Institute of Education Tele-Learning

There appear to be distance education programmes available from Amity University and Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU). See http://www.kie.ac.rw/spip.php?rubrique105

African Virtual University

There is activity from the African Virtual University.

Re.ViCa Case-study

None.

Lessons learnt

An energetic small and well-governed country can overcome a troubled past and many obstacles to achieve interesting results in e-learning.

References

General background

1. DFID Country Plan: Rwanda 2008-2012, DFID, http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Documents/publications/cnty-plan-rw-2008-2012.pdf

Education (all sectors)

There is much material in the following two documents that needs to be incorporated in this country report:

1. Education Sector Strategic Plan 2008–2012 (DRAFT), Ministry of Education, Republic of Rwanda, June 2008, http://www.mineduc.gov.rw/IMG/pdf_pdf_ESSP_2008-2012_July_2008_Final-3-3.pdf
2. PROGRAM IN SUPPORT OF THE EDUCATION SECTOR STRATEGIC PLAN (ESSP) 2006-2010: APPRAISAL REPORT, May 2006, http://www.mineduc.gov.rw/IMG/pdf/RWANDA_20EDUCATION_202006_20ENGL.pdf

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For OER policies and projects in Rwanda see Rwanda/OER

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