Rwanda

Real lives

Rwanda’s most vulnerable children get a second chance to learn

© UNICEF Rwanda/2003

Rwandan children pose for a photograph outside their classroom.

It is the first day of catch-up classes for vulnerable children in Ruhengeri, Rwanda. This is a big day. For the 300 children who succeeded in getting a space in the classroom, the suspense and excitement are overwhelming. Most of these children, aged nine to 14, have never been to school. Others dropped out years ago.

A national study supported by UNICEF found that around 400,000 primary school-aged and 600,000 secondary school-aged children across Rwanda are not in school. In response to this educational crisis, UNICEF and the Rwandan Ministry for Education set up these classes to give the children another chance.

Bunani, a girl with sadness etched on her face, sits by a window. She hardly speaks. “We do not know her age,” the school director Bonaventure Nsabimana says. “Maybe between nine and 12. She has probably suffered from malnutrition for a long time.”

Bunani keeps her arms crossed. When asked where she comes from, she answers in a barely audible voice, “I came on a truck from Congo.”

A refugee returns

She arrived without her family. Not knowing anyone on the truck, she hooked up with a man named Thomas who said that she could live with and work for his family. Thomas has four children. His wife works in the banana plantations. Bunani cleans their house, fetches water and prepares their meals.

She is asked if Thomas’ children are her friends. Bunani looks at the ground. “They have soap, and I am not allowed to use it,” she says. Another adult asks her, “Do you have any friends? Do you know any other children here in the school?”

There is a long silence, then Bunani shakes her head no.

Many Rwandan families and children, like Bunani, have recently returned from refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to their homes or to new settlement areas in Rwanda. Although school fees have been dropped, most of the working children and orphans cannot afford the other school expenses, such as the $5.10 for exercise books and learning materials or the $6.20 for a school uniform.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF pushed for allowing children to attend school without a uniform. This has now been accepted for the catch-up classes and in some regular schools in most provinces. UNICEF also pressed for the elimination of all school costs for orphans and other vulnerable children. Ruhengeri province has agreed to that.

Despite these efforts, Bunani cannot join a normal school class. She has lost several years of schooling and has to catch up on reading, writing and mathematics before she can join children her own age.

A second chance

The UNICEF Education Officer Vénérande Kabarere explains that without the catch-up classes, many children would be facing a life of illiteracy.

“These children have to struggle every day to find something to eat,” she says. “The idea of giving them a chance for education started in 1998. We proposed to the Ministry of Education to develop a catch-up curriculum adapted to their needs.”

Flexible, non-formal education for children is quite a new concept in Rwanda. UNICEF organized a visit for delegates of the Government of Rwanda to neighbouring Uganda, which has many years of experience with catch-up education. The Rwandan Ministry of Education recognized the importance of such a programme and agreed to initiate a pilot project of special classes in standard schools in three provinces.

Between November 1999 and March 2000, UNICEF supported a national awareness campaign promoting “Education For All” in all provincial education departments. It focused particularly on girls and vulnerable children.

UNICEF also funded the development of the special catch-up curriculum. The strategy to make up for lost school years was developed in collaboration with children, parents, teachers and community organizations. Children have requested two sessions per day because many of them must continue to work. The catch-up project is divided into three levels and aims to reintroduce education to as many school dropouts as possible.

The project also promotes children's participation in prevention activities such as “patronage” whereby seasoned pupils follow newcomers in the catch-up classes to see if they run into problems. They inform the teachers if help is needed.

UNICEF hopes to start catch-up classes in Rwanda’s remaining nine provinces. Then the right to primary education could become a reality for 400,000 other Rwandan children. And they, like Bunani, would be given a chance to expand their horizons.