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Jagpreet
12 August, 2024
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“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” —Nelson Mandela
It is certainly imperative that after any disastrous conflict, many countries face the impossible task of restructuring their society. Rwanda is a country located in East Africa. The country suffered a horrific genocide in 1994. However, Rwanda also poses a great example of how education can be an effective tool in post-conflict reconstruction. This blog examines how important education was to Rwanda’s recovery and how it has changed the country’s people and future.
According to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the poor education rate in conflict-affected nations has come to light as a result of the global commitment to the Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to ensure all children receive good quality primary education by 2015. According to an EFA report children in conflict-affected countries are more than twice as likely to miss out on education as children in other countries, despite an increased campaign and focus on education.
In 1994, Rwanda saw the worst genocide in history as more than 800,000 people were killed in just 100 days. This genocide made people fall, created cultural and social divisions, the economy collapsed and many citizens were killed. People made many efforts to rebuild Rwanda and
education turned out to be one of the most important ones.
As per the report cited by the UNESCO Digital Library. Following are the impacts of civil war and genocide on Rwanda’s education system.
✅ Rwanda’s school system was severely damaged as a result of the civil war and 1994 genocide.
Significant infrastructure destruction.
75% of teachers were killed or jailed for alleged participation in the genocide (Freedman et al 2004: 250).
70% of children interviewed reported having witnessed violent injury or death (Obura 2003: 50).
✅ Akresh and de Walque (2008) assessed the impact of the war and genocide on children’s schooling.
✅ Comparison of data from two household surveys conducted prior to (1992) and after (2000) the genocide.
✅ Controlling for baseline schooling levels and the variation of genocide intensity across the country.
✅ Focused on cohorts of school-age children affected by the genocide.
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Conclusions from the study:
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We all know the importance of education. Additionally, it makes sense the way it is imparted. Let’s analyse the role of education in rebuilding Rwanda.
In Rwanda, after post conflict education has played a major role in healing and reconciliation. The Rwandan government introduced educational changes after the genocide to promote harmony and unity within the country. The curriculum was changed to include teachings on peace, tolerance, and conflict resolution, making schools into places where young Rwandans could learn about their culture and the value of forgiveness and unity.
Rwanda faced various socio-cultural and deep ethnic divides between Hutus and Tutsis communities. Education played a significant role in curbing social cohesion by enhancing collaboration in different communities. When different ethnic cultures are made to sit and learn a common thing it ignites a sense of fraternity. In fact, many initiatives were taken by different communities and they created inclusive schools and community-based educational programmes.
Education also played a crucial role in economic reconstruction. When there is skilled labour economic progress comes automatically in its way and skilled labour is possible only using education. Rwanda gave rise to traditional schooling in many of its areas. The country’s economic development can now be participated in and contributed to by Rwandans because of efforts to increase access to basic, secondary, and higher education. Technical and vocational education has been successful in preparing people for the workforce and lowering poverty and unemployment rates.
Education is an effective means of empowering women and girls in Rwanda after the violence. Women suffered disproportionately throughout the genocide, and many of them were left to support their families alone. Promoting gender equality and economic development has depended heavily on ensuring girls’ and women’s access to education. The educational achievement and economic involvement opportunities of girls have been greatly enhanced by programmes designed to increase their enrollment in schools and provide scholarships.
While dealing with education in Rwanda many challenges occurred. Let’s discuss those challenges and their solutions.
One of the major issues in the genocide was dealing with trauma and the mental health of the people. It became necessary to incorporate trauma-informed teaching methods into the educational system. The provision of counselling services and training teachers to identify and assist children coping with trauma contributed to the development of a more encouraging and trauma-free learning environment. Therefore more emphasis on learning settings was given post the conflict.
There were several difficulties in reconstructing the educational system. Numerous schools were destroyed and the education system was also on the verge of severe destruction. There was an absence of teachers and education supplies in the country. To address these difficulties, international cooperation and aid were essential. Financial and technical assistance was also supplied by institutions like UNICEF and the World Bank to reconstruct schools, train educators, and create instructional materials. However, soon the major constraint was waived by the Rwandan government.
The next crucial challenge was imparting quality education to students. The education should be equal to education given as per the standards. The Rwandan government was facing difficulties in maintaining the quality of the education. So they prioritised frequent assessments, curriculum revisions, and ongoing professional development for teachers. Some continuous efforts were made in STEM education and digital literacy to curb the barrier for Rwandan students.
The genocide in Rwanda came to an end in July 1994, and a transitional Government of National Unity was imposed. In the field of education, the government dealt with the legacy of a system that had been primarily founded on prejudice and inequality in addition to getting children back into the classroom. The Ministry of Education reopened elementary schools in September 1994 and requested children to return to learning a challenging undertaking given that numerous schools had been the scenes of crimes during the genocide. Since then, the government has made great efforts to fulfil its declared objectives of increasing access to education. This was made possible by, no fees at the primary level, enhancing the quality of education and extending free basic education from 6 to 9 years which constitutes primary and lower secondary education.
Looking back at Rwanda’s experience in transforming the school experience is not just common however it is surprising. Education played a remarkable role in reconstructing Rwanda through healing, economic development, empowerment of women and imparting quality education. After taking into account the Rwandan case study you can surely study the case studies of other countries that also faced genocide and reconstructed their educational system. Therefore, it is also evident that p can bring about significant alterations in a society and help to rebuild lives, communities, and even countries together.
Education has played a major role in the development of Rwanda, especially after the genocide in 1994. It has made students cope with social, emotional and cultural barriers. It has also improved the thinking and behavioural developments.
One of the major educational issues was that the enrolment was too low and the teaching medium was not properly imparted.
Conflict resolution helps in the development of several abilities, such as perspective-taking, emotional control, effective listening, and emotional awareness.
