The Government has announced its decision to scrap Ubudehe social stratification in the process to award university bursaries and only consider student performance.
Ubudehe is a socio-economic stratification system based on family assets.
This was announced by the Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente on the last day of National Umushyikirano Council on Friday.
Ngirente’s announcement was prompted by a question posed by Théodosie Uwihirwe, a primary school teacher from Burera District.
Uwihirwe, who had tuned into Umushyikirano from the Northern Province site, said that primary school teachers were faced with a challenge to cover tuition fees for their children after government placed them in Ubudehe category three.
“I would like to request that Ubudehe categorisation be removed as one of the conditions based on to offer a student a bursary but, instead, award scholarships to students based on what they wish to study and the marks they attained,” she said.
Currently, only students from the first and second categories are entitled to government scholarships, but only on condition that they attain the set pass mark.
The third category is entitled to only 20 per cent while the fourth category is expected to fully fund the student’s education.
All the categories are expected to pay back these loans once they graduate and start working.
During the selection of bursary beneficiaries, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects are prioritised.
In response, Ngirente said that his office was working with four ministries and other partners to fix this challenge but promised that Ubudehe will never be part of the scholarship criteria again.
“I can assure you that Ubudehe will not be one of the conditions we will be basing on to award any student scholarship. It will purely be based on the student’s knowledge and marks,” he said.
