09 March 1998

Bonn, Germany: Twenty-five UNV lecturers will provide much-needed support to the National University of Rwanda in Butare. Efforts to resume academic activity in this African country have been considerably impeded by the lack of qualified lecturers. The United Nations Volunteers who will cover a wide range of curricular subjects will thus make a crucial input to the education of Rwandan university students in the years to come.

UNV’s involvement has been facilitated through generous contributions: UNDP and the Government of the Netherlands allocated US$ 2.5 and US$ 1.5 respectively. In a recently signed agreement with UNV, the Government of Canada also allocated $ 485,000 CAN to fund five lecturers who will take up their assignments before June and join those already fielded.

The subjects taught by the UNVs cover five broad areas: health, law, agriculture and rural development as well as computer science and civil engineering. The assignments are for two years, important in order to provide students with a thorough education. At the moment, short-term lecturers from abroad are teaching up to 75 % of all courses offered by the different faculties. These assignments which are normally for several months not only involve high costs, but also make continuous and qualified supervision literally impossible.