BUJUMBURA April 16th (ABP) – The Director General of Finance and Heritage at the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research, Mr. Steve Niyongabo, proceeded on Thursday, April 14, to the opening of the two-day regional workshop organized as part of the preparation for the estates general of education in Burundi on the Burundian education system, 2022 edition, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
In his opening speech, Mr. Niyongabo indicated that since 2010, the government of Burundi has undertaken a major reform of the education system, in particular through the establishment of basic school at the ordinary level and the Bachelor’s degree-Master’s degree-Doctorate (BMD) at higher education level.
To that end, he said that these reforms were guided by the fact that the government was aware of the considerable role that education must play for the development of human capital in national planning. The valuation of this capital is dependent on education and training, through a coherent educational system adapted to the socio-economic realities of the country, to be able to influence the other pillars of development, he said.
In addition, Mr. Niyongabo stressed that the Burundian education system is currently marked by the demotivation of teaching staff and the poor quality of services. He also specified that a fundamental problem lies in the fact that the education and training system is segmented without anchoring upstream and downstream, with the economic and social sectors.
He affirmed that it is for this reason that the education system must be redesigned to promote an education which enables the individual to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes enabling them to understand their environment, to interact with it, to continue their education and training within society and participate in economic, social and cultural development.
On that occasion, he specified that the main goal of that workshop was to recall and contribute to solving the identified problems which bog down the Burundian education system while proposing recovery strategies to establish the quality and efficiency of the education sector at all levels.
Mr. Nestor Niyonzima made a presentation on the theme “The promotion of technical education and vocational training and crafts in Burundi”. He indicated that the Burundian education system has kept a general theoretical character, not very professional, and does not respond effectively to the imperatives of development and bringing training-employment adequacy.
He stressed that technical education, vocational training and crafts, occupy an important place in the government’s strategy to solve problems related to the non-employability among young people.
With a view to further decentralizing higher professional education and making education more professional, the government has selected four projects for the construction of higher professional institutes in four provinces, notably Cankuzo, Cibitoke, Muyinga and Rutana, and five regional institutes, including the polytechnic reference center of Rusi in Karusi.