National Reconciliation Through Education in Rwanda

Abstract

This thesis wants to focus on how Rwandan officials, working with international colleagues, seek to reform the academic curricula in primary and high school to create a "new Rwanda." Such reforms seek to shape a new nation; nevertheless these reforms seem to be limited by Rwanda's current political dynamics and position in the international community. This thesis is constructive, since it aims to act as a further critique and assessment of the Rwandan education system and its weak reforms. The analysis of Rwanda’s new academic reforms will therefore include influential works, by scholars who before me tackled this reform. This analysis of Rwanda’s education reform will seek to understand the ways in which this new academic model will allow for the development of a new national identity among the younger population. This new identity should be strong enough that won’t be threatened by ethnical divisions like the ones that have affected the earlier generations. The main rationale behind the examination of the Rwandan education reform is to provide the pathways in which this reform should direct to and asses the progress its doing and its actual effectiveness.