BUJUMBURA July 12th (ABP) – The rector of the University of Burundi (UB), Dr Sanctus Niragira, announced on Thursday July 8, 2021 that the students of the Faculty of Medicine benefiting from the NICHEBDI240 project will have a capacity for innovation and initiative to learn by real problem within the community, a check by ABP revealed.
That announcement was made during an interview with the media on the occasion of the “closing of the NICHEBDI240 project and the day of the problem-based learning approach and learning within the community: experience of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Burundi” at CELAB (Center for the Teaching of Languages in Burundi).
The rector of the University of Burundi indicated that the NICHEBDI240 project is funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands to support the adoption of the Baccalaureate, Master, Doctorate (BMD) system, problem-based learning system and learning within the community.
In that framework, the practice is put forward, the students learn by a real problem within the community instead of focusing on the theories, he added.
Mr. Niragira also reported that students learn from the very place they go to work within the community to understand issues, set goals and develop solutions to issues that haunt people.
Regarding the achievements of the project, Dr. Niragira said that there has been capacity building of the human resources staff of the Faculty of Medicine of the three campuses namely, the University of Burundi, the University of Ngozi and the Hope Africa University in academia and research.
He also mentioned the provision of laboratory equipment and transport materials such as the Toyota Hilux vehicle and a bus for transporting students during the trips to approach the community in case of need.
Mr. Niragira did not forget to point out the challenges linked to insufficient human resources. In addition, he added, there must be permission from the Ministry of Public Health and AIDS Control for students to stay in health facilities.
The rector of UB said that the people will benefit from the project through the services that will be rendered by those student beneficiaries when they start going about their professional activities.
According to the rector of UB, the project started in 2017 and the beneficiary students are now in the 2nd year of the baccalaureate.