On 4 June 2024, at G.S Camp Kigali in Nyarugenge, Director General of Rwanda Basic Education Board, Dr. MBARUSHIMANA Nelson addressed participants at Career Day Inauguration, an event with the aim of helping students achieve their goals in securing future careers.

In this event, learners came to school dressed in an item of clothing whereby they represented an item of clothing representing their career choice by  dressing in attire that reflect a specific profession or career field.

Students from different secondary schools such as College Saint-Andre, Lycée De Kigali, Lycée Notre Dame De Citeaux exhibited their projects in various fields like Artificial Intelligence, robotics and agriculture, health, business, among others.

In his remarks, DG REB first expressed his gratitude to all the people who made this event possible through The Ministry of Education, Rwanda Basic Education Board to head teachers, school teachers, parents, students and colleagues.

“Choosing your career path is one of the most important decisions you need to make. In this event, you students will have the opportunity to meet some of the most successful and influential individuals in our community who were once in your shoes dreaming to be professionals, and now they already are.” He added

“Career dress up day is not only a fun event where we get to wear different clothes; it is a day that shows our desire to nurture their passions of our students and encourage them to explore different paths. In our culture, we say: “N’izibika zari amagi!” DG REB Dr. Nelson continued.

DG REB also took his time to thank all participants including students who shared the dreams and aspirations and told them that he has no doubt that they will continue to achieve great things in their chosen professions.

Dr Nelson also urged students to never doubt themselves and instead work hard to make it happen.

“In this event, you students will have the opportunity to meet some of the most successful and influential individuals in our community who were once in your shoes dreaming to be professionals, and now they already are. Surely, meeting them, you will need to be inspired to work hard and commit to the pursuit of your future goals. ”

Niyonsenga Jean De Dieu, headmaster of Groupe Scolaire Camp Kigali which hosted this event delivered his remarks by thanking Rwanda Basic Education Board’s role in supporting students chasing their career paths.

“Choosing a profession is amongst the hard decisions to make. It is a big sacrifice that the school makes for students to achieve their dreams. In this event, I want to tell you students that this time is an opportunity you have got because it’s when you meet adults that can have a huge influence on your dreams you are chasing.” Niyonsenga continued

Director of School Leadership and Career Guidance at REB, Mr. Eugene Ngoga Fixer shared his remarks by embarking on how an eye opener this event is in regards to what students are aspiring to be emphasizing on how funds have to be directed towards such an initiative.

Dr. Muyombo Thomas Director of Regional Center for Blood Transfusion, also known by his stage name Tom Close, as a music performer, was among the attendees and speakers in the event. Due to his influence that stems from his music days, he is also well known to have chased and succeeded a career path of being a professional doctor.

In his remarks, he stated that the first and foremost obligation a student has is to gain knowledge and learn something new on a day to day basis while they also have to focus on their dream in order to achieve it.

“In order to achieve your dreams, you will need to have Rwandan values that will guide you through what you want to achieve with discipline.” Dr. Thomas said.

“You don’t have to just wear like doctors in order to be them. Treating patients and helping them is all what it takes.

The easiest thing you can do to make a thousand steps is making the first. To be a doctor or an engineer, you will need to focus on your duties from the time you are in kindergarten. As you grow, that is how duties change time by time until you reach the stage of choosing the path you need to follow.” He added.

Among participants who attended this Career Day to present their projects is Ishimwe Teta Olga, a student at Lycée Notre Dame De Citeaux who presented a business project that stems from Entrepreneurship as a lesson she attends in class.

“We have different products like crochets we use in manufacturing small bags that people can equip themselves with to keep money, Identity Cards, among other stuff.” Olga said.

“There are also liquid soaps which people use to clean windows and also when mopping.” She continued.

“Mush rooms are also part of our business though it is a new project we have recently come up with whereby we produce them through agriculture.”

Robotics is also part of a variety of projects that were presented. Cyubahiro Elias, a student at Lycée De Kigali in the combination of Mathematics, Computer and Physics (MPC) explains how his project is designed and works:

“Our project is about how we want to combine robotics and agriculture whereby for the sake of increasing productivity, robots can be introduced given the world is currently not sufficient with the quantity of food it needs.” Elias said.

“The way our robot is designed is that it has the ability to sense pests and weeds that impede the pace for growth of plants in a farm.” He added

Gasasira Irakoze Constantin another student in the combination of Mathematics, Computer and Physics(MPC) who is from College Saint-Andre illustrates Wavumbuzi, an initiative he chose to work on with his colleagues as one that deals with assessing what students studied in a curriculum using Artificial Intelligence.

“We as the youth from College Saint-Andre cooperated in order to leverage the usage of Artificial Intelligence to create products while it reduces overload management faced by humans.” Gasasira said.

“We have top education, an app we are working on now that aims to making education turn from manual to virtual. Not only that but also e-commerce whereby our focus could be on helping agriculturalists.” He continued

Career Dress Up Day is an event that helps students explore various career options and gain insight into different professions. It is both a fun and educational activity that encourages career exploitation and awareness.

The Ministry of Education through the Rwanda Basic Education Board has committed efforts to streamline Career Guidance and Counseling Program in Rwandan Schools whereby 1800 Deputy Head Teachers in Charge of Studies as Career Advisors and they will help students get to know their strengths and weaknesses to make the best career choices and 1065 Deputy Headteachers in Charge of Discipline have also been trained to identify common challenges to learners in schools and to help students who struggle with the social-emotional problem which affect their performance.

The partners who joined Rwanda Basic Education Board for the Career Inauguration Day to take place are Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth and Arts, USAID, World Vision, Wavumbuzi, among others that play a big role in the Rwandan education sector.