The paradox of opening up higher education within a traditional education paradigm in Rwanda: A critical look at policies and practices

eMerge Africa, 17 August 2015

Bernard NkuyubwatsiEmail: bn30[at]le.ac.uk

Presentation outline

• The rise and fall of student loan in Rwanda

• The drop of funds in public higher ed

• The status-quo of open and distance education in Rwanda

• Barriers to open & distance education

• Suggested solution

• Conclusion

The rise and fall of student loan in Rwanda

• Too limited funds to provide the loan to all in need

• Merit-based provision of the loan since 1998

The merit-based provision of the loan

• Anonymous grading of national exams

• The national exams for secondary ed graduation open to formal & non-formal learners

• Student loan provided to top performers in the national exams

• The results in the national exams, the cut-off point for government sponsorship and student loan as well as the winners of the sponsorship and loan openly released to the public

Too good to last long 2001: Some secondary education fields prepared train

for jobs, not for higher education. Graduates in those field would fail higher education and student loan would be wasted. So, no student loan for them.

Additional requirements for some

• 2 years of professional experience required for provision of the loan to graduates in least privileged fields

• Invalidation of experience prior to taking the national exams in the new system

• 2002: student loan provision to graduates from all fields: Higher cut-off point for graduates in the least privileged fields

The climax

• The 2001 issue: the beginning of student loan crisis that culminated in 2013: massive cut of student loan.

• Students petition different institutions: http://rwandaexpress.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/students-petition-senate-over-bursary.html

• Students arrested after submitting a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office

National policy’s perspective: Illegal Demonstration: http://www.police.gov.rw/news-detail/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=300&cHash=fab50059d028b8a27c9a9e584b4543ec

Students’ perspective: Presentation of proof of submission of the letter to the Prime Minister’s Office

The Court decision: No evidence of illegal demonstration

The “Higher education is not for everyone” mantra

Social disempowerment

Self- perception of not being good enough for success in higher education (Lane, 2009 p. 9 and Lane & Van Dorp, 2011, n. p.).

The claims that “graduates in some secondary education fields would fail undergraduate education (2001) and higher education is not for everyone are socially disempowering

Such social disempowerment leads to the loss of potential talents and waste of human capital.

The drop of funds in public higher education

• Funds for higher ed dropped since 2010All public higher education institutions

merged into the University of Rwanda established in 2013.

The status-quo of open and distance ed in Rwanda

• The School of Open & Distance Learning theoretically integrated in the University of Rwanda but no practical contribution beyond existing DL programmes.

• Duplication of campus-based practices: Teaching in study centres.

Open & distance learning was not scaled up to reach the majority in need for higher ed

Barriers to open & distance education

• The mismatch between political rhetoric and scholarly practices

By 2017, 30% of secondary ed & 50% of high ed to be provided via open, distance & eLearning (the executive summary of the 7 Year Government Plan). No evidence indicate that anything has been done in this regard.

Transformation towards Knowledge-based economy and the most valuable resources available in Rwanda is its people: A huge number of people in need for higher ed not serviced

Barriers to open & distance education (…)

• Shifting the cost to overloaded academicsOpen & distance learning seen as accessory to the

conventional education programmes. Extra-load to conventional education academics

that can be dropped

• Avoidance of those trained in the field of open and distance learning

Offers to contribute to related initiatives are repelled.

Barriers to open & distance education (…)

• Resistance to innovation Submission of a letter in print format in

request for discussion related to ODeL

Distance learning students have to submit assignment in print format and travel to campus for appeal on missing assignment

Email: Not accepted in official communication

Barriers to open & distance education (…)

• Imitation and the “copy and paste” culture

University of Rwanda’s Policy and procedures on academic staff appointments and promotions still has a note that stipulate that to be promoted academics are expected to be involved in activities that contribute towards the economic and/or civic development of Scotland …. (…) my omission

The University of Rwanda (2014, p. 38)

Barriers to open & distance education (…)

• Ephemeral solutions

Student loan management transferred to Rwanda Development Bank

Loan recover loans vs increasing the number of student loan beneficiaries (especially when tuition fee is beyond most people’s financial capability)

e.g: Unpaid student loan in USA: More than $1 trillion

Student loan: Rivalrous in Rwanda, non-rivalrous in well-resourced settings

Suggested solution

• A specific agenda for opening up higher education• Innovation in the investment of different types of

resources

Beyond financial resources

Conclusion

• Political rhetoric on open and distance learning in Rwanda did not match related practices.

The shortage of financial resources inhibit inclusion of underprivileged learners: the overwhelming majority

Social disempowerment and loss of potential talent

• Different stakeholders in Rwandan higher education may collaborate on investment of different types of resources for opening up higher education in Rwanda.

All of them may need to be engaged in related initiatives

Selected referencesGovernment of Rwanda (n.d). Executive summary of 7 year Government progress assessment. Retrieved from http://www.huye.gov.rw/uploads/media/7_years_gvment_programs.pdf.

Gregory, S.M & Lodge, M.J. (2015). Academic workload: the silent barrier to the implementation of technology-enhanced learning strategies in higher education, Distance Education, DOI: 10.1080/01587919.2015.1055056.

Lane, A. (2009). The impact of openness on bridging educational digital divides. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 10, no 5. Retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/24791/1/IRRODL_2009.pdf.

Lane, A. & Van Dorp, K.J. (2011). Open educational resources and widening participation in higher education: Innovations and lessons from open universities. In EDULEARN11, the 3rd annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 04-05 July 2011, Barcelona. Retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/29201/1/OPEN_EDUCATIONAL_RESOURCES_AND_WIDENING_PARTICIPATION_andy.pdf .

Nkuyubwatsi, B. (2015). Fostering collaborative investment in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), in Jansen, D. & Teixeira, A. (eds) Position Papers for European Cooperation on MOOCs: Overview of Position Papers on the Opportunities and Characteristics for European Cooperation as Presented During the HOME Conference in Porto November 2014 , pp. 44-57. Retrieved from http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/sites/default/files/news/Position_papers_for_European_cooperation_on_MOOCs.pdf .

The University of Rwanda (2014). Policy and procedures on academic staff appointments and promotions. Retrieved from http://www.ur.ac.rw/sites/default/files/Acad-prommotion.pdf#overlay-context=node/8%3Fq%3Dnode/8.

Weller, M. (2011). The Digital Scholar: How Technology Is Transforming the Scholarly Practice, New York: Bloomsbery.

Weller, M. (2014). The Battle for Open: How Openness Won and Why it Doesn’t Feel like Victory, London: Ubiquity Press. Retrieved from http://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/books/detail/11/battle-for-open/.

Thank you!