Director of the Department of Primary Education -REB, Dr. Nelson Mbarushimana, announced that the programs established by the government to take care of the lives of teachers, make many of those who had left this profession want to return to it.
He returned to it on Sunday, January 21, 2024, in the program ‘Questioning Leads to Knowing’ on Radio Rwanda. It is a discussion of what has been done in the construction and development of the education sector in the last 30 years.
Dr Mbarushimana says, “So now we are seeing many people who want to return to this teaching job. Just like last year, there were many applicants who wanted to return to the teaching profession. It means that now students will find teachers who want them, helping them to stay in school.”
After the Genocide against the Tutsis in 1994, education is one of the sectors that needed attention in building the education and upbringing of the children of Rwanda, and the quality of what they learn and the well-being of the teachers who provide that education. It was all aimed at making teachers love their profession, so that the quality of what they provide can rise day by day.
Dr Mbarushimana said that the remaining teachers love to teach and that is what makes them able to make the learning of those they teach go well, so the number of dropouts decreases.
He says, “The rest of the teachers like this teaching job where there are programs that are done every day, to count the students who have come, and the school principals send us reports.”
He continues: “Because we want the child to start the season, but also finish it. We receive these reports and even if there is a child who spends a week without coming to school, we talk to the parents so that he would return to school.”
Dr Mbarushimana also says that among many things the Rwandan government has done so that teachers continue to enjoy the work of teaching, including raising salaries and so on. The government had previously set an increase of 10% of the teacher’s salary every year but in 2022, it decided to increase it significantly.
Currently a teacher who starts work with a high school diploma (A2), is paid 108,488 Frw, up from 57,639 Frw. The salary for a second degree A0 went from 176,189 Frw to 246,384 Frw. Other initiatives include the establishment of the Teachers’ Cooperative Sacco, where teachers can now get loans easily.
The Government of Rwanda has also established a Statute for teachers, the training they receive on a daily basis and they have been set up to help teachers to rise in the ranks. continue in other categories.
