{"id":3785,"date":"2016-09-13T15:29:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T15:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/?p=3785"},"modified":"2016-09-14T07:22:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T07:22:41","slug":"better-learning-conditions-will-be-the-hallmark-of-the-schools-of-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/better-learning-conditions-will-be-the-hallmark-of-the-schools-of-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents question whether \u201cschools of excellence\u201d will yield better results"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea of \u201cschools of excellence\u201d is viewed with skepticism by parents who doubt the schools will yield better results. The Ministry of Education claims the outcome will be positive as learners will be in an environment conducive to quality learning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Ngagara

Ngagara lyc\u00e9e<\/p><\/div>\n

Parents are questioning whether the new \u201cschools of excellence\u201d set to open this September with the new school year 2016-2017 will be any different to normal schools in Burundi. In the words of one parent: \u201cHow excellent will those schools be if they keep the same curricula, same teachers?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter learning conditions will distinguish the schools of excellence from other schools\u201d, reassures Edouard Juma, the spokesman of the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Scientific Research. \u201cFor example, a 30-students classroom is not like a 60-student class. Likewise a school that has laboratory equipment is not like a school with no equipment\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

Schools of excellence will help minimize the impact of problems that plague the Burundian educational system. In fact, despite government actions to improve the educational system through free primary education and increased funding, the sector still faces great challenges. For example, the pupil-to-teacher ratio was 47,1 in primary schools and 29,7 in secondary schools in 2012, according to statistics compiled by Nation master. In addition to the lack of classrooms and qualified teachers, there is the lack of books and other school equipment, and drop-out rates are high. \u201cOverall, we lose 50 percent of the children before they complete primary school,\u201d said UNICEF representative, Johannes Wedenig. \u201cAnd we lose another 50 percent of those who transition to secondary school before they finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The schools of excellence were created by a decree issued on 18 August 2016. Their stated objective is \u201cthe improvement of teaching-learning processes to reduce the shortage of highly trained and competent business managers, teachers, researchers and engineers\u201d. Furthermore, those schools aim at developing student\u2019s interest in research and training them to become creative and critical thinkers through investigative and experimental learning processes.<\/p>\n

According to Janvi\u00e8re Ndirahisha, the Minister of Education, Higher Education and Scientific Research, the schools will cover grade 7 of the basic education (known as Ecole Fondamentale) and the first year of post-basic education.<\/p>\n

Candidates for the 7th grade will be selected through a contest that will be held tomorrow, 14 September. The eligible contestants will be the best school children from the 6th grade. As for those who will be enrolled in the post-basic education, the sole criterion will be the results they got in the national test they have done.<\/p>\n

The Minister says four boarding schools, one in each of the four school districts of the country, will host selected candidates. Those are Saint Marc and Ngagara lyc\u00e9es in the capital Bujumbura, Rusengo lyc\u00e9e in the eastern province of Ruyigi, Musenyi lyc\u00e9e in Ngozi northern province, Notre Dame de la Sagesse lyc\u00e9e in Gitega central province and Kiremba sud lyc\u00e9e in Bururi southern province. The schools have been chosen for the quality of their facilities and equipment that make them excellent learning environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea of \u201cschools of excellence\u201d is viewed with skepticism by parents who doubt the schools will yield better results. The Ministry of Education claims the outcome will be positive as learners will be in an environment conducive to quality learning. Parents are questioning whether the new \u201cschools of excellence\u201d set to open this September […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,670],"tags":[779,554],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3785"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3792,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions\/3792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}