Rwanda’s Competence-Based Curriculum Shows Gains but Faces Steep Hurdles in Musanze Schools

A new study from the University of Rwanda offers one of the most detailed portraits yet of how the country’s ambitious Competence Based Curriculum is actually playing out in classrooms, and the picture is one of genuine progress shadowed by stubborn structural obstacles. Researchers Marie Yvonne Ingabire and Gabriel Nizeyimana examined primary, secondary and technical-vocational schools across Musanze district in Rwanda’s Northern Province, interviewing 36 teachers and head teachers drawn from 18 schools. Their findings, published in Discover Education, reveal that while the curriculum has begun to reshape teaching and learning in meaningful ways, its success varies dramatically depending on a school’s resources, location and status, with public and government-aided schools lagging behind their private and TVET counterparts.

The Competence Based Curriculum represents a fundamental philosophical break from the knowledge-based model that dominated Rwandan education for decades. Rather than rewarding memorisation and recall, the CBC framework asks learners to develop practical competencies: literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology, citizenship and national identity, entrepreneurship, science and technology, and communication in official languages. Teachers are expected to act as guides and facilitators, orchestrating active experimentation, reflective observation and concrete experiences rather than delivering fixed content. The approach was designed starting in 2013, officially launched by the Rwanda Basic Education Board in 2015, piloted in sampled schools from 2016, and rolled out nationwide in 2020.

The study’s theoretical anchor is transformative learning theory, developed by Jack Mezirow in the 1970s, which holds that learners must move beyond passive knowledge acquisition toward instrumental and communicative learning: solving problems, evaluating cause-and-effect relationships, and articulating their own needs and ideas. This framing proved analytically useful because the researchers were examining precisely those conditions, classroom interaction, teacher guidance and learner engagement, that the theory identifies as essential. Where those conditions are absent, the theory predicts, competence-based education cannot take root, and the Musanze data bear that prediction out with uncomfortable clarity.

Methodologically, the researchers adopted an interpretivist paradigm with a phenomenological design, combining a systematic desk review of curriculum documents and national policies with semi-structured interviews lasting 90 minutes per participant. The school sample was deliberately stratified: 12 general education schools and 6 TVET schools, split evenly between rural and urban locations, and divided equally among public, government-aided and private institutions. Teachers were selected by simple random sampling within each school, while one head teacher per school was purposively chosen. To strengthen trustworthiness, the team conducted two consecutive rounds of interviews across the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years, asked identical questions in both rounds to check consistency, and used member checking to verify that participants’ responses had been interpreted accurately.

The findings expose a striking gap between how different school communities understand the curriculum’s core philosophy. Several teachers in general public schools admitted that many of their colleagues believe CBC simply means putting learners into groups, a misreading that misses the teacher’s continuing role in guiding, explaining and scaffolding tasks. One primary school teacher noted that even though the curriculum positions learners as prime actors in generating their own knowledge, guidance and facilitation from teachers are what keep them focused and moving toward intended achievements. Without that scaffolding, group work becomes activity without direction, and competencies fail to develop.

Language emerged as perhaps the most corrosive barrier. Since Rwanda shifted to English as the medium of instruction in 2008, both teachers and learners have struggled with proficiency, and the study found that low English skills severely hamper the classroom interactions on which competence-based learning depends. A teacher in a government-aided school explained that learners who cannot grasp a concept cannot apply it, and that many cannot demonstrate or explain their knowledge because of language barriers. Worse, the language gap has pushed some classrooms back toward the very practices the reform was meant to eliminate: rote memorisation of content, followed by failure in examinations when learners cannot determine where or how to reproduce what they have memorised. The teacher also criticised assessment design, noting that most examination items test only understanding and comprehension, leaving no room for the analysis, evaluation and creativity that the curriculum officially champions.

Head teachers painted an equally divided picture on resources. One urban private school leader praised the syllabuses as exceptionally well designed, with scenarios, model questions and teaching strategies all laid out in advance. But a rural public school head teacher countered that recommended teaching aids were designed without any analysis of conditions in remote schools, which often lack laboratories, electricity and internet connections essential for teaching ICT and science subjects. A rural TVET head teacher added that although the curriculum supports inclusivity in principle, most schools lack the facilities and specialised materials needed for learners with special educational needs. The proposed remedy from a private school leader was systematic: long and short-term planning cycles, from five-year down to weekly plans, matched by cooperation across administrative levels to secure requirements on time.

Yet the study documents real, sometimes remarkable, gains. In TVET schools across Musanze, teachers reported increased student engagement, professionalism and graduate employability. One rural government-aided TVET teacher described how the curriculum accelerated the production of skilled graduates who not only found jobs but helped unskilled youth in the surrounding area develop small income-generating activities, lifting household living standards across the region. Employers, according to urban TVET head teachers, have testified to how quickly and substantially graduates contribute to problem-solving in the Rwandan labour market. Meanwhile, 83.3 percent of interviewed teachers and 94.4 percent of head teachers affirmed that ongoing training sessions organised by the Rwanda Basic Education Board and the Rwanda TVET Board improved teaching and learning, though all agreed the number of trained teachers remains far too low.

The researchers distilled the challenges into a consistent set: time constraints against planned content, insufficient learning materials relative to class size, low proficiency in the medium of instruction, limited parental involvement, teacher resistance to change, and weak capacity to design genuine competence-based assessments. They also noted a sobering continental context: across Africa, roughly 62.7 percent of teachers have demonstrated low fidelity to competence-based approaches, with insufficient training and inaccessible implementation resources cited as the main reasons. Rwanda’s experience, the study suggests, mirrors this regional pattern, particularly in under-resourced public schools where one head teacher described national investments in smart classrooms as a droplet in the ocean given the prevalence of overcrowded classrooms.

The study’s recommendations form a practical roadmap. The authors call for a national evaluation of the curriculum’s effectiveness and impact, stronger mediation between school realities and national policy, intensified refresher training for teachers, peer learning between schools of different working conditions, standardised alignment of teaching and assessment practices with CBC principles, and resource mobilisation targeted at rural schools. They also urge deeper analysis of competence-based assessment, recommending examinations that blend short-answer and essay questions testing critical thinking with practical, hands-on tasks that stimulate creativity. Parents, they argue, need mobilisation to participate actively in their children’s learning. The researchers acknowledge their own limitations, noting that perspectives from students, parents and national decision-makers, along with classroom observations and focus groups, would enrich future studies. But their central conclusion stands firm: Rwanda’s curriculum reform is directionally sound and already producing competent graduates in its best-resourced schools, yet full success will demand sustained investment in teachers, materials and time, especially for the public and government-aided schools that serve most of the country’s children.

Subject of Research: Implementation of the Competence Based Curriculum in primary and secondary schools in Musanze district, Rwanda

Article Title: Critical analysis of competence based curriculum implementation in primary and secondary schools of Musanze district, Rwanda

Article References: Critical analysis of competence based curriculum implementation in primary and secondary schools of Musanze district, Rwanda. (n.d.). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-026-02072-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44217-026-02072-x

Keywords: Competence Based Curriculum, Rwanda, Musanze district, curriculum implementation, competency-based education, TVET, teacher training, English medium of instruction, learner-centred pedagogy, educational policy, qualitative research, transformative learning theory