parents who are civil servants on minimum wage make sure they find a way to
steal government money and send their children to private schools here in
Nigeria or abroad, rather than work together to make our public schools better
as they should be…sigh!
As you read this, many private schools in
Rwanda are on the verge of closing down due to low patronage.
A report by Daily Nation says desperate proprietors who face
closure of their institutions are now asking the government to sponsor students
in private schools at public rates.
But the government has rejected the
idea.
The “problem” started with the government’s twelve-year basic
education policy which made public schools affordable and
preferable.
According to the report, the Ministry of Education invested
hugely in expanding capacity and teaching infrastructure at public schools
across the country; introduced the school feeding programme and abolished school
fees.
Already, more than 30 private schools are said to have closed
indefinitely this year, while others are struggling to stay afloat as they
continue losing students to the better public schools.
School owners told
Rwanda Today that even those that had managed to stay open were struggling to
meet their operational costs.
“We’ve suffered a sharp decline in the
number of students enroled, yet the school has accumulated debt, unpaid salaries
and owes arrears to suppliers. It is not clear if the school will re-open,” said
Samuel Batamba, the head teacher at College Nkunduburezi in Gakenke
District.
Mr Batamba said the school used to have 900 students but now
has only 80 students after it failed to attract new students while others
enrolled in public schools.
According to statistics from the Ministry of
Education, the government owns 460 out of the more than 1,575 schools in the
country.
The rest are run by religious bodies with the Catholic church
owning 620 schools, the Anglican church 279, Adventist church 22 and Muslim
schools are at 16. Another 178 schools are run by parents’ associations and
individuals.
The most affected institutions are private boarding
schools.
Figures show that students in private schools decreased from
101,510 in 2012 to 79,076 last year while enrolment in public and
government-aided schools almost doubled in the same period.
According to
John Gasana, the Vice chairman of the Private Schools Association, competing
with public schools requires huge capital investment to improve infrastructure,
equipment and hiring skilled teachers, something many private schools cannot
afford
