Secondary school teachers complain about new timetable

The class course duration in the secondary schools has increased from 45 to 55 minutes. Teachers and students complain about the new decision. Courses start every morning at 7:30 and end at 13:55 p.m. instead of 13:00 p.m. as scheduled previously. Even if the ministerial ordinance has not been yet issued, some schools have already followed the new timetable.

Students will leave schools at 13:55 p.m.

Rémy Nsengiyumva, the chairman of the Teachers’ Union –STEB says some schools have already adhered to the new timetable while others have not. “We are not really pleased with the new measure as the decision-makers have not consulted us”, he says.

Nsengiyumva also says the Ministry of Education should review the measure for the good of both students and teachers. “Students will hardly learn courses more than eight hours without food. Concentration in classrooms is not easy for both teachers and students. They are tired given that students do not have anything to eat”, he says.

Students say they are obliged to review courses learnt during the last hour. “We do not concentrate much because we were accustomed to going back home one hour before”, he says. Another teacher from Ruyigi says he cannot teach a course that is difficult to understand. “I am obliged to teach easy courses because students are not really concentrated”, he says.

The STEB chairman reminds that the measure of increasing an hour to the timetable when teachers have been redeployed to different parts of the country. He says teachers must normally teach between 18 and 24 hours in a week, but now, they have to teach 32 hours following the redeployment operation. “From now on, they are obliged to spend 40 hours in class. We wonder if the Ministry of Education has consulted the national and international Labour law before drawing up the timetable”, he says.

Rémy Nsengiyumva urges the ministry of education to meet teachers and parents to agree on one measure that should facilitate everyone. “Headmasters who have followed the decision before it is signed, should suspend it and wait for the consultations between the ministry of education and the concerned people”, he says. The Ministry of education has promised to react later.