KIGALI, Rwanda, July 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Denys Migambiyabagabo, 27, always thought a high school certificate was all he needed to be a high school teacher until a district meeting where he and hundreds of his fellow teachers, in Rwanda's southern Gisagara district, woke up to the news of the Ministry of Education requiring high school teachers to have a university degree.
He was forced to go back to school and get a degree. Every Friday evening, Migambiyabagabo rushes to catch a bus to southeast Rwanda to attend weekend classes at the Catholic University of Rwanda (CUR).
"I will get a pay rise when I get my Bachelor's degree." In a country where the labor market has become competitive, he sees education as his salvation.
"I will be equipped with solid knowledge to compete," he says.
Rwanda's labour market has grown aggressively competitive in a relatively short span.
By 1994, after the devastating genocide against Tutsi that claimed over a million lives, Rwanda had one university, which had produced not more than 2000 graduates in three decades.
It was a failed state. Brainpower was not a norm of life. Illiteracy levels were surging.
Post-genocide Rwanda has since then sought to address the purge with a robust and ambitious strategy.
The government embarked on a plan to create a knowledge and service-based economy by the year 2020 – a paradigm shift from an agrarian one.
Primary school enrollment is at a record 97%, with students required to complete at least 9 years of basic education curriculum.
Thirty two higher learning institutions have already been established, 15 of which are private, including foreign universities such as Kenyatta University, Mount Kenya and USA's Carnegie Mellon.
By 2012, there were 76,629 students in higher learning institutions across the country in 2012. 82.4% of them were enrolled for Bachelor's degrees, and extra 1,091 on a government scholarship.
With exponential increase in graduates, the labour market is expected to shrink equally.
As a member of the East African Community (EAC) of over 125 million people, Rwanda's eleven million will have to work harder to compete in the cutthroat regional labor market.
With the government's increased investment in skills development, many Rwandans like Migambiyabagabo, are determined to tackle competition by its horns.
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By Didier Bikorimana
Senior Reporter
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