Investigation of Youth Empowerment Strategies via Education for All in Rwanda

*1. Dr Jean Francois Maniraho, 2. Anastasie Uwababyeyi, 3. Sylvain Habimana, 4. Pascasie Nyirahabimana and 5.Dr Leon R. Mugabo 1,3,4,5University of Rwanda, College of Education, 2University of Tourism Technology and Business Studies
*Corresponding author: jmaniraho2@gmail.com

Received November 16, 2018, Revised April 13, 2019, Accepted May 12, 2019

Abstract: Rwanda is one of the countries which argued to put into practice the agreement suggesting the international community to ensure access to quality basic education for all by the year 2015. In that line, Rwanda has set a policy in favor of all Rwandan children to have 12 years basic education for free. However, some reports revealed that there are still challenges to address for that mission to be effective. This paper offers a tentative snapshot on “the investigation of youth empowerment via education for all in Rwanda”. The research aims at investigating if really the Rwandan policy to promote education for all in primary and secondary level helped by the global EFA (Education for all) objectives became a primordial strategy to empower Rwandan youth. In the absence of sufficient instruments to measure the contribution of the Rwandan established policy, in practice, a coding scheme was developed and applied to the in charge of education at both district and sector levels. The research was done in two districts of the country which facilitated us to answer our questions. As few studies of this kind might have been conducted in developing countries and particularly in Rwandan context this adds to researchers’ existing understanding on the role of EFA in empowering youth. The findings suggest that there are important contributions of established EFA policy as initiated by Rwanda. Even if the overall impression is that the youth empowerment via education for all in Rwanda is not in a calamity, some areas require improvement. Based on our findings, these include the reviewing of some options attended by students in twelve year at secondary school, trainings of the latter have to be enhanced as well as financial support. The paper ends with recommendations to different concerned people.