This is at Kinihira Primary School in Ruhango district where kids are trying out cricket. While the classroom study time has been reduced, the learners will spend the rest of their time in extra curricular activities like sports or drama, or singing, according to the Education Ministry. (Photo by Mugisha Don de Dieu/Flickr)
Kigali, Rwanda – Rwanda is embarking on one of the most far-reaching education reforms in its recent history.
The new curriculum will shorten daily classroom hours for young learners, restructure upper secondary school into specialized career pathways, and overhaul the overall learning model to address deep-rooted issues of poor academic outcomes, high repetition rates, and teacher overload in a country where more than half of schools operate on double shifts.
The reforms were approved by cabinet earlier in the week. This Friday, the Education Ministry gathered stakeholders to deliver the changes.
And to reach the widest population, especially parents who will fund the changes, the changes were announced via syndicated live across multiple media platforms.
Officials say the new reforms are not just an adjustment but a full reset of how Rwanda educates its children—starting from nursery to the final year of secondary school.
This Friday though, the Ministry was discussing primary and below. Next Friday will be secondary and similar levels, while the following Friday will be for higher education.
Why the System Had to Change
The current primary school system—based on a single-shift model—requires each student to attend eight periods a day, totaling 40 periods per week.
However, 52% of all public and government-aided lower primary schools (Primary 1 to 3) use a double-shift system due to limited infrastructure. That means children either attend only morning or afternoon sessions, leaving them with fewer than 5 complete periods per day.
This means that while the curriculum expects 40 periods a week, many learners in reality receive barely half of that time.
The consequences have been serious. Teachers under the double-shift model struggle to cover the syllabus, leading to poor learning outcomes, exhausted teachers, and overwhelmed learners.
Nationally, repetition rates average 25%. In Ngororero District, that figure is a staggering 34%.
The statistics speak volumes. The number of children currently enrolled in lower primary school has reached 1.8 million, with 746,241 in Primary One (P1), 612,096 in Primary Two (P2), and 536,121 in Primary Three (P3).
These numbers have stretched available classrooms and teachers to their limits.
According to Adia Umulisa, Head of Education Sector Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation DepartmentMinistry of Education, (MINEDUC), the situation is alarming:
“One in three children repeats Primary One. In Primary Two, we have a 27% dropout rate and 5% repeaters. In Primary Three, 23% of pupils repeat. These are not numbers we can ignore,” she warned.
Taking inspiration from global models such as Finland—where learners in lower primary spend just 20 hours a week in class—Rwanda is introducing the following changes for Primary 1 to 3:
- Students will now attend only five periods a day, or 25 periods a week.
- School start time will be adjusted to 8:00 a.m. to allow more focused learning in the morning.
- Afternoon sessions for schools on double shifts will end at 5:00 p.m.
This, the Ministry argues, is a realistic and sustainable approach for lower primary learners, whose concentration spans are shorter, and whose cognitive foundations are still being built.
A New Structure for Upper Secondary
Beyond primary school, the reforms reshape upper secondary education into three specialized learning pathways, allowing students to choose a track based on their interests, talents, and future ambitions:
Track 1: General Education (GE)
This pathway will include Mathematics and Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Languages, focusing on traditional academic routes that prepare students for university.
Track 2: Professional Education (PE)
This track includes Teacher Training Colleges (TTC), Associate Nursing programs, and Accounting—designed to address national skills gaps and link directly to jobs.
Track 3: Technical Education (TE)
Here, students will study applied subjects like Construction, Energy, Agriculture and Food Processing, Hospitality and Tourism, Arts and Crafts, and Transport and Logistics.
This approach echoes successful models in countries such as Germany, South Korea, and Singapore, where vocational and technical education has been central to economic transformation.
The Funding and Infrastructure Hurdle
These sweeping reforms also come with huge infrastructural demands. Rwanda still faces a shortage of at least 40,000 classrooms. The COVID-19 pandemic, while devastating, was used as an opportunity: 27,000 new classrooms were built during that period to reduce congestion.
But that effort alone is not enough. That requires hundreds of billions of francs in financing. And that money must be found—whatever the cost.
The Education Minister Joseph Nsengimana has moted that smaller class sizes will be essential to delivering quality education under the new structure.
But in government-run early childhood education centers, overcrowding remains a problem. On average, there are 64 students per class—twice the government target of 32.
In Nyaruguru District, the number is as high as 79 pupils per classroom, while Karongi District has the lowest average at 46.
A Critical Moment for Early Childhood Education
Minister of Education Joseph Nsengimana emphasized that the reforms must begin with the youngest children.
“The importance of early childhood education is immense. Research shows that if a child masters this level well, it sets them on the right path to succeed in all subsequent levels of education,” he said.
In early childhood education, 450,000 children aged 3–5 years are enrolled, with another 5,500 under the age of 3.
The number of institutions offering pre-primary education has doubled from 5,207 in 2017 to 11,734 in 2024.
However, the ratio of students to teachers remains unbalanced, especially in rural and public schools.
This is why the Ministry of Education is now focusing its communication directly on parents. During Monday’s live broad conference, Education Minister Nsengimana made a public appeal:
“We want parents to ensure their children attend school regularly and arrive on time. The foundation we lay at this stage will determine whether these reforms succeed.”
How Rwanda’s Reform Compares Globally
Rwanda’s approach echoes parts of Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), introduced in 2017, which also emphasizes real-world application, flexibility, and pathways tailored to different learner strengths.
Kenya replaced its rigid 8-4-4 system with a 2-6-3-3 model, while Rwanda is blending time reduction and content depth with specialized career guidance.
Implementation will not be easy. Rwanda must train more teachers, build more classrooms, rework textbooks, and shift public expectations.
But with a clear strategy, constant communication to the nation, and widespread support from school administrators and parents, the Ministry hopes to reverse years of stagnation and put the country’s education system on a stronger, smarter footing.
For the 1.8 million children currently in Rwanda’s lower primary, this reform may finally offer what previous systems could not: a chance to learn deeply, dream boldly, and progress confidently through the classroom and beyond.
