On the 21^st , February 2024, at Rwanda Basic Education Board, DG REB, Dr. Mbarushimana Nelson and ACP Teddy Ruyenzi chaired the meeting of Heads Of Schools Organization at National and District levels with the purpose of reviewing the Status of School dropout, School Leadership Challenges, reflecting on preventive measures and suggest possible solutions. In this meeting, there were discussions on Schools’ participation in the Kigali Public Library writing competition 2024 which aims  to enhance the creative writing skills among Rwandan students while raising awareness about different issues faced by our society.

In his assertion, DG REB stated that there are four pillars that are useful to have quality education as such as: Access, Retention, Performance and completion. In Education, the four pillars act as our catalogues by which we should refer in the process of teaching and learning.   

“When students come to school, learn and enhance their skills, that means access. The reason why we are who we are, it is because of that access to education. We school leaders have to open the doors such that students come to school with total humanity and parental love. For instance when you meet a child who is not at school yet he/she supposed to be there, you should think about access to schools and education.” DG said

DG REB Board elucidated the rest of the three pillars:  Retention refers to continuing to possess the students at school for those who accessed the school already. There are pushing and pulling factors during retention exercise. Pulling refers to school dropout caused by inappropriate school leadership style or disciplines of the students. This factor can be caused by inattentive, ignorance, abusing, belittling towards our students. It is good to identify all of these pushing factors while trying all means to avoid them. There are also pulling factors which are always there to attract our students to wrongdoings such that they leave the school (school dropout). There are many examples like parents’ mindsets, culture, religion, and many among others. It is our responsibility to identify those factors to withstand.

DG added that when we receive a child in primary one, our target as leaders is to retain that child by making sure that the child remains in the school studying as well and resist to those pushing and pulling factors for the child to succeed.  “Remember that this success and performance we are talking about cannot be achieved without discipline and Rwandan values.” He noted.

“There should be various and strategies that help us to remain and keep the students at school while studying but they should complete the levels of studies as it is required (completion). To achieve this, we school leaders have to pay attention on leading learning and leading teaching. The heart of the practice of learning turns around supervision of how students are studying and how teachers are teaching. To achieve this, you should have meetings with students for fresh collaboration and the teachers as well to build a strong relationship and parental love among students. They will tell you the truth and decide not to misbehave but they will study for success and completion.” DG REB concluded

HOSO leaders and ACP Teddy Ruyenzi (Commissioner Community Policing) reflected on how Rwanda has heavily invested in ensuring free quality education for all but despite all efforts the dropout level has remained undesirable. The government of Rwanda had set an ambitious target of reducing school dropout from Primary and Secondary school.

“In our community, we should look for solutions for our own in order to have future generation we want. At school, there should be patriotism and anti-crime clubs which enable schools to have disciplined students which will contribute in the performance as DG REB has said. It is not productive to have a hundred clubs that are not active. We can decide to have a small number but which are active. The patriotism club can be an umbrella of other related clubs.” ACP Teddy said

The Heads of Schools Organization (HOSO) as the neck that turns the education ecosystem is collaborating with an array of stakeholders to roll out a national campaign code named ZERO DROUPOUT- GUMA MWI’SHULI CAMPAIGN fitted with innovative interventions to reverse the current dropout rate preferably to zero.

“We have taken a proactive approach to addressing this issue by way of promoting interventions with a track record of success hence adopting a three dimension (multifaceted) approach of; Digital Tools, Community Engagement, and Psychosocial Support and Mentoring. We have successfully integrated all the three corners of education delivery i.e. Teacher (school), Parent (community) and Learner in our interventions.” Emmanuel said

In the meeting Director of Kigali Public Library Madam Tessy Rusera explained more about writing competition and encouraged school leaders to help and motivate the students to participate especially those who are in rural areas.

“We really thank those who are doing everything to improve education for all with massive efforts to achieve our country’s vision which is to build a knowledge-based economy country as the answer to transforming the country from a low-income to a middle-income nation. The primary aim of this competition is to enhance creative writing skills among Rwandan students while raising awareness about different issues faced by our society. Each year, students are given a specific topic to write about, which is intended to educate and inform the Rwandan community about important matters.” Madan Tessy said

Director Tessy Rusera added that by participating in this competition, Rwandan students have the opportunity to become published authors and promote inclusive reading and writing practices among their peers. This initiative is particularly important in fostering a culture of literacy and creativity among the youth in Rwanda.

The objective of Kigali Public Library's annual writing season three, is to promote language proficiency in English, Kinyarwanda, and French among Rwandan communities, particularly students, through engagement in various writing categories. This initiative aims to improve their reading and writing abilities and stimulate their imagination and creativity.

The theme of competition revolves around "Tourism and Conservation" Registration and Submission started on 09^th February to 30^th March. The competition is open to all Primary and Secondary schools in Rwanda (Public and Private), Lower and Upper Primary (P1-P6), Ordinary and Advanced Level (S1-S6).