Rwanda: More than 1566 teachers in schools are working without legal documents, says PSC

The Public Service Commission has said in its 2019/2020 activity report that a total of 1,566 teachers in Rwanda in public schools are currently working without legal documents putting them in the positions that they occupy, according to a news report by The New Times.

The report, to be tabled to the Senate on Monday afternoon, indicates that teachers, who represent 6.6 percent of all the teaching staff continue to work without files, largely due to the incompetence of some labor inspectors.

For instance, the report says in six schools in Nyagatare district, none of the teachers is documented. Of the 2,430 teachers in the district, 807 are undocumented. In Nyamagabe, 391 of the 2586 teachers are undocumented and in the Gicumbi district, 187 teachers of 2619 are undocumented.

The report also says that of the 23,617 teachers in 11 districts, it is unclear how 4,087 of them started working since there are no appointment letters indicating how they were hired.

The report also indicates that 762 teachers are currently working without having presented their school qualifications. This, according to the report, casts doubt on whether they are qualified to be holding the positions that they are currently occupying.

This is not the first time the issue of qualifications is coming up.

Last year in October, the Ministry of Education announced that it was giving teachers without the required qualifications two months to vacate their positions.