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Effective
post-war reconstruction through decentralisation
By Leila Loupis,
UNESCO Harare |
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 After
the 1994 genocide, the Ministry of Education in Rwanda was faced
with an almost impossible situation - how to reconstruct the
education system which had been almost totally destroyed, leaving
no more schools, supplies, teachers, programmes, nor administration? |
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Faced
with such an enormous task, the Ministry was forced to start
from the basics. The first step was to re-open the schools.
As many students had not been able to complete the previous
school year, a 'special semester' was initiated at primary level
so that the children could finish their studies and sit the
relevant end-of-year exams. |
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"Once
the population saw that the schools had re-opened, the refugees
and displaced people began to return to their villages in Rwanda
and new life was injected into the country", says Mr Musabeyewu
Narcisse, Director of pre-school, primary and special education
and National EFA Coordinator. For the displaced populations,
the opening of schools was equally the symbol and the guarantee
of stability and peace. |
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Active
community participation |
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At
the beginning of 1995 the Ministry and all its partners put
education on the agenda during a special conference on education
policy and planning in order to establish the "what", "when",
and "how" for the reconstruction of education. Based on their
constraints, they modified their goal of education for all to
the year 2005, aiming at a rate of 80% universal education for
the year 2000. |
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Priority was given to the creation of infrastructures, equipment
and implementing emergency plans for teacher training at all
levels. A special fund was created for children who were orphans
of the genocide, so that they would not be excluded from the
school system. |
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The
government also used an innovative approach in the decentralisation
of the process of reconstruction and administration to the villages.
On one hand, each village was to elect a management committee
with one person designated responsible for education in that
village. On the other, parents were mobilised and asked to participate
in the construction of the schools - not with financial contributions
but more with their labour. |
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Optimistic
trends |
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Five
years later, the progress is remarkable and the atmosphere optimistic,
confirmed Mr Musabeyewu. The numbers of both students and teachers
have increased. At the end of 1994 there were 16,825 teachers
et 820,238 students in 1,283 education centres. At the end of
1997/98, there were 22,638 teachers, 1,167,274 students and
1,991 education centres. Moreover, the education programme has
been harmonised, and administrative structures (inspectors,
examination boards) established. |
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