The role of education in driving conflict and building peace: The case of Rwanda

Abstract

This article considers the relationship between education, conflict, and peacebuilding in Rwanda. First, it examines the role that education played in the lead-up to the 1994 genocide, discussing whether and how the low levels of educational attainment, inequalities of access, curricular content, and teaching methods contributed to the conditions for violence. It then looks at approaches to rebuilding the education sector since 1994. Despite significant progress, for example in widening access and achieving gender parity at primary level, three significant challenges remain. First, educational opportunity continues to be unequal in the post-primary sector, with disparities of access between rich and poor, a severe lack of alternative and non-formal educational opportunities, and some ethnic dimensions to the disparities. Second, tensions remain over history teaching due to government attempts to impose a single ''official'' narrative of Rwanda's history. Finally, teaching methods remain largely teacher-centred, with little open debate and teaching of critical thinking skills. The article cautions that, despite progress, some dimensions of Rwanda's current education policy and practice may continue to exacerbate tensions. It concludes by outlining some future priorities and urges the Rwandan government and its international development partners to more rigorously assess the potential impact of education policies on fragile social relations, and to embrace opportunities for education to play a more central role in peacebuilding in Rwanda.

Ludobójstwo w Rwandzie i jego polityczne konsekwencje

“…Od chwili przejęcia władzy w państwie nowy rząd podjął wysiłki zmierzające do poszerzenia dostępu do edukacji. W tym celu zniesiono opłaty za kształcenie na szczeblu podstawowym, wydłużono także okres jego trwania z sześciu do dziewięciu lat 107 . Problemem pozostaje jednak ograniczony dostęp do edukacji na poziomie ponadpodstawowym.…”

‘Boys don’t rule us’: exploring Rwandan girls with disabilities’ resistance to masculine dominance in school

“…Instead, masculine domination includes efforts to subjugate female leadership in classrooms to the control of men when young women wish to exercise the authority and agency they have, as codified in social and educational policies (McLean Hilker 2011;Huggins and Randell 2007). As the data reveal, and previous research suggests, masculine domination's more subtle variants are perhaps just as pernicious as its prototypical expressions (Berry 2015;Russell 2016).…”

Deliberating and Learning Contentious Issues: How Divided Societies Represent Conflict in History Textbooks

“…This strategy is often implemented in the immediate post‐conflict period: ‘Dealing with the recent past is especially problematic because the situation is still heavily disputed, raw, and characterized by personal trauma, anger, and grief’ (McCully :154). In Rwanda, a post‐genocide moratorium on history education was put in place, ending only in 2010 (McLean Hilker ). In post‐apartheid South Africa, the move to omit history from the curriculum was motivated in part by the content of apartheid‐era textbooks, which extrapolated a ‘foundational myth’ in which ‘all the peoples of South Africa were immigrants, arriving more or less at the same time from various directions’ (Weldon :62).…”

“…Yet by compelling students to confront dark and difficult moments in their history (as victims or as perpetrators), education may threaten inter‐group goodwill, already in short supply in divided societies. Some portrayals may instead exacerbate polarization and division by employing negative and stereotypical imaging or inflammatory language to describe ‘enemy’ others (McLean Hilker ; Spinner‐Halev ). History education is also very politicized; it is often employed for a range of nation‐building purposes, ‘from the inculcation of national identity to the propagation of moral and political positions’ (Papadakis :128).…”