Oriented Towards Action: The Politics of Improving Education

Quality in RwandaTimothy P. Williams, PhD

Honorary Research FellowSchool of Environment, Education and Development

University of Manchester, UK

Introduction

• Formal education in Rwanda– Core to economic and social development

• Access vs quality:– More children from poor households have more access to

more years of schooling– Low literacy and numeracy; low completion rates;

repetition rates increasing

• Argument:– The drivers that have led to Rwanda’s most impressive

gains have also presented a set of challenges to improve education quality

Dominant developmentalist framework• Incentives rest with longer term goals rather

than shorter term rent extraction– Good governance– Decentralization of service delivery– Performance contracts

• Coalition for primary education– Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, DFID,

Cabinet, and President of the Republic

Key reforms and outcomes

• Key reforms– 9-Year Basic Education (2008)

– English language (2008)

– 12-Year Basic Education (2010)

• Primary school outcomes– Enrollment: 88% in 2012– Low levels of literacy and numeracy– Completion rate: 76% in 2010 to 61% in 2014– Primary repetition rate: 18% in 2013

Illustrations from fieldwork

• Decentralization policy: – Empower PTC and head teachers– Innovation by schools

• Incentives:– Performance contracts: measurable outputs (e.g.

classroom construction) rather than learning outcomes• Teacher training and recruitment: – Re-centralization of teacher training to improve English– Challenge of attracting enough qualified teachers– Low financial incentives for teachers in rural areas

Provisional conclusions: Oriented toward action

• Longer term goals rather than rent extraction• But why aren’t education outcomes better?– ‘Oriented toward action’ ≠ coherent policy approach

• Performance contracts: outputs vs outcomes• A case of ‘high modernism’?• Expanding access is politically popular and easier– “You can’t have quality without access”– Social development