BUJUMBURA September 14th (ABP) – The Minister of National Education and Scientific Research, Mr. Gaspard Banyankimbona was on Thursday, September 10, 2020 in front of the MPs at the Kigobe hemicycle to explain a decree bill revising Law n ° 1/22 of December 30, 2011 on the reorganization of higher education in Burundi.
In his explanatory memorandum, the Minister responsible for national education indicated that this law, which is currently being revised, has the originality of integrating relevant elements such as the clarification of the status of higher education institutions from their name. (“University” “school” “high school” “university institute”); of the National Qualification and Certification Framework (CNQC), stressing that the latter was the missing piece in the entire Burundian education system to show the existing relationships between traditional qualifications and professional qualifications while establishing a parallel between the two.
He also indicated that this law will integrate the professionalization of higher education which has proved to be very complicated due to the problem of access to venues and the supervision of trainees.
Mr. Banyankimbona also returned to the enhancement of technical and vocational training and the clarification of the titles and diplomas which are the result. For training organized outside working hours, he stressed that this law would make it possible to enhance the certificates continuously acquired after the validation of the various modules but also to enhance the accumulated credits to finally obtain a professional diploma each at their own pace; which is the main innovation expected from that current new regulation, he added.
He also emphasized the indiscriminate regulation of the public and private sectors in the organization and management of higher education and the reorganization of the orientation system for graduates of fundamental and post-fundamental schools taking into account of the fate of the laureates of the schools of excellence who will soon be admitted to higher education.
Regarding the harmonization of good practices of the sub-region in the implementation of the Bachelor-Master-Doctorate (BMD) reform, Minister Banyankimbona indicated that the BMD system is not strictly applicable for certain fields such as medicine and engineering sciences with regard to the duration of training, the credits covered by the training and with references to other member countries of the East African community.
The Minister having national education in those attributions also specified that this new regulation will facilitate the integration into the new common space of higher education and the harmonization of some of the provisions relating to the collation of academic titles which will be beneficial to the laureates who will seek jobs not only in Burundi but also throughout the space of the East African Community or elsewhere.
On the question of knowing the purpose of the pupils who attend schools of excellence, the Minister specified that his pupils will be oriented in faculties of the University of Burundi considered important compared to others such as medicine, sciences and engineering.
Regarding the recruitment exams launched by that Ministry, Mr. Banyankimbona said it was to retain only the best, adding that temporary teachers can be retained if they demonstrate their competence during the exam and if the marks equivalent, the commission retains the note of the one who was temporary.
For master’s programs here in Burundi, the Minister pointed out that there are 25 programs or streams at the University of Burundi, six programs at the Teacher’s college(ENS), five programs at Hope University and six others at the Light University of Bujumbura. He also raised hopes that the passage of that law will be the answer to some questions of educational degrees. He also said that private universities do their work with public universities in mind. After the explanatory memorandum and questions from the MPs, that law was adopted by 98 MPs present and 14 proxies.