The Kigali Institute of Education was created
in order to undertake teacher-training research
and serve as a centre of excellence in education.
To understand the key role of your institution,
can you briefly give us your personal analysis
of the extent to which Rwanda needs qualified
teachers?
I will start by giving you the statistical situation.
About 50% of the secondary school teachers in
Rwanda are untrained and about 32% of the primary
teachers are untrained. Even those who are said
to be trained are under trained because most of
the primary teachers are trained in secondary
schools. They finish the first three years of
secondary school and then they take the option
of teaching. There are so many secondary schools
that are doing that that the resources are scattered
to extent that the quality of teaching is not
high. There was no institution to train secondary
school teachers in Rwanda until Kigali Institute
of Education was started in 1999.
There is a great need for teacher training in
Rwanda for both primary and secondary and also
a need to strengthen those who are qualified so
as to produce quality education, which is comparable
to countries in the region. Actually we intend
to train teachers who will be at the same level
as those with in the region so that there can
be transfers, they can go to Burundi or Uganda
and get further training. So we have to make sure
that our programs are international.
How many students do you have at the institute
today?
In the institute we have 1,300 full time students
and we have the 500 on the job training by distance
education. We also have about 250 non-teachers
who come and study in the evening in various courses,
so altogether we have about 2000 students.
Do all the students have to be bilingual French-English
when entering the Institute?
Not yet the institute is trying to produce bilingual
teachers, it is not easy but it is going to get
easier when we start to admit students from secondary
schools that have studied English and French.
I think this is the last year when we shall have
students who don't understand both languages.
Those who come next year will start straight away
studying in both languages because normally we
spend a year teaching the language they do not
know.
Are all the students from Rwanda?
Essentially, most of them are from Rwanda although
there are those who come from Congo and Uganda
but they are not yet significant figures.
Where does your teaching staff mainly come
from?
Unfortunately after 1994, most of the professors
were killed or had run away. When we started this
institute, there were very few Rwandans who were
qualified to teach. We got funding from African
Development bank, the Netherlands government through
UNDP and World Bank to recruit professors from
Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Uganda, India
and some other countries. They are here for four
years or more till our people who we sent to study
will be coming back with Masters and PhDs.
For your educational development, do you collaborate
with foreign education institutes?
The Professors who wrote the syllabi for this
institute were from Kenyan and Ugandan Universities
as well as form the National University of Rwanda
in Butare. At the moment we have professors from
those universities, we have those who come for
short courses and those who are here for the last
two years. We compare notes with the institutes'
form where our academic staff come from.
We want to have collaboration with the University
of Lille in France. We signed bilateral agreements,
to exchange staff and students in Science areas.
The University will also help us in the moderation
of our academic programmes. We are also working
with the University of London external programs
for our distance learning programs. We have got
a consultant here who is helping us look at the
quality of programs and delivery. The Minister
of Education is trying to help us get some universities
in America where we can send our staff for staff
exchange and staff development at doctoral level.
UNESCO and the French cooperation keep sending
us senior professors who come and we discuss,
they go to the faculties and look at programs.
There is a consultant from France who has been
helping us with the distance learning. African
Development Bank sent him but the French cooperation
helped us when the funds run out.
You have set up a distance training office
for secondary school teachers. Have you been able
to measure the efficiency of such type of training
so far?
We have finished the first year and it is a three-year
program. The trainees are enthusiastic, now we
are trying to find out the impact it has on the
teaching. We have given them the modules and the
materials that go with them and we think this
will give them the confidence to use the preferred
teaching materials. Generally we find that the
morale of the teachers on our programs is higher
than those who are not yet on. I think with time
the impact will be felt although now it is still
too early. The quality of delivery is being improved
everyday, we have an office here where we have
people who edit the modules and translate from
English to French or from French to English. We
have got administrators in the field; four of
our ten centres have full time administrators
and six out of ten of the centres are manned by
part-time administrators.
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The training of your
students will have a spill over effect on provision
of manpower to the different sectors of the economy.
In this regards, do you have any relationship with
the corporate sector? And what are the faculties
or subjects that you would consider as a priority
according to Rwanda's current needs?
60% of the students are science students because
this country lacks qualified science teachers.
Science is our major focus and even the budget
for it is quite heavy. It is also a national policy;
the President has been encouraging every national
to do ICT, so when we were recruiting professors
we gave them minimum training in computer skills.
We provided a computer per department, today there
is more than one computer in some departments
although there are no secretaries, they produce
their own work. We started with professors; now
every student who goes through the institute must
get minimum computer training. We are also being
asked by the Ministry of Education to start a
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in Education.
The teachers will go and teach in selected schools
that are going to start computer science. We are
trying to recruit some professors from the region.
Of course people cannot do only science and ICT,
they must also have other areas in Arts and Social
Sciences especially. We also have very active
groups of students in sports, music, dance and
drama and we are trying to develop a physical
education department to train teachers in sports
administration and sports science. We have a balanced
education that will eventually spill over.
Do you also try to invest in training the
higher education teachers?
Our first output will be next year and after
that we intend to retain the best students and
give them higher education here or abroad. It
is difficult especially for us who are specialised
in education, when you go to upcountry schools
you find there are very few well qualified teachers.
The ones who are qualified come from outsides
like Congo and Burundi and will go back when there
is some stability. So I think the higher education
is being done mainly outside Rwanda because the
facilities are not yet in place.
The KIE is committed to support the national
policy of capacity building. What are the main
goals you would like to reach by 2010?
Well other than producing substantial training
through initial training here and distance learning,
we have also embarked on identifying groups that
would need short refresher courses. We have started
a department of primary education, which shall
be going to the primary teachers centres, and
we will upgrade the tutors there. That is another
way of having an effect on the primary section;
when the primary teacher trainers become strong
they will be producing strong primary teachers.
And we also want to use these primary teacher
centres to reach other centres. Each primary teacher
centre will have about another ten centres in
the country manned by senior teachers. Those ones
can also be trained in issues of inspection, administration
and primary teacher training in the holidays.
USAID is going to give us computers for some of
these centres so we can have ICT training in the
communities.
By 2010, KIE will have a network all over the
country; initial training is good but we have
realised that investing in in-service training
by distance education will have a bigger impact
on human resources already working.
Can you give a brief history of your professional
experience and how you came to become the director
of the KIE?
I first qualified as a graduate secondary school
teacher in Uganda in 1974 and I taught in a secondary
school for about 6 years. I then joined a teacher
training institute as a junior administrator and
worked my way till I became the Academic Registrar
for an institute like this one for 18 years. During
the 18 years I spent in the Institute of Teacher
Education Kyambogo, Uganda, I had further training
for Masters of Arts in Education specialising
in higher education. I also had many short courses
and travelled widely in Europe, America and Asia
to compare teacher education in those countries
with Uganda. During my tenure as Academic Registrar,
I participated in a number of teacher training
programmes in the Ministry of Education in Uganda.
In most of these training programmes I chaired
many committee sessions such that I widened my
experience in teacher training. When this institute
was started, I was identified as one of the people
to come and write a proposal for the institute
that was to be similar to the one I was working
for. When they wanted to start the institute they
called me to come and help them to start it. So
I came in November 1998 and I was given a two-year
contract, which ended in October 2000. I was then
given a renewal contract. I think one of the things
that help me is that I am a teacher trying to
train teachers.
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RWANDA
Innocent
Byuma 