It is now just over three weeks ago, on 15th of March 2021, since the start of Semester 1 of the 2021 Academic Year, having lost, due to Covid-19 pandemic, a period of six to nine months of 2020 for different batches of students. Ordinarily the academic year used to start at the end of September or beginning of October, hence the 2019/2020 academic year should have finished in June 2020 but instead it became 2019/2021 academic year, finishing in February 2021. This new academic year which started on March 15th, hopefully can be a crash program which finishes in December 2021 with the intention of starting the following academic year in January 2022 to finish about October 2022. In this way, if the following academic year started in November 2022 that could finish in August or September of 2023 which would allow for resumption of our normal cycle of October start of academic year in 2024 and September start in 2025. This, of course, assumes no new serious Covid wave or other pandemic!

It is amazing how many new words and terminologies have entered our language usage since the beginning of 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The challenges of the past 12 months have demonstrated the capacity of the human race to be resourceful and resilient in order to survive. Yes, we have been battered and our economy has suffered greatly, but we shall get through this and emerge stronger. For RP as a higher learning institution, many lessons have been learnt and other experiences which we shall continue to learn from. In my previous messages on this platform (RP Website), I have reminded our community – staff and students – that there is now a new normal in nearly everything we do. I have alerted you before to the fact that online learning is no longer going to be an add-on, or icing on the cake, but the major modus operandi, the core, in all teaching/learning activities in what is referred to as blended learning. The student will increasingly be in charge of their own learning which will demand a whole new set of habits and skills in personal management and discipline, not only for the student but for the teacher as well. We have in the past emphasized the need to shift to student-centered learning, but the teacher/trainer has been inadvertently reluctant to let go the reigns of control – the euphemism is called “class management”. A disruptive new reality is that the students can learn best in their own seemingly disordered or unstructured (chaotic?), but interactive medium of group sessions and playing with the machine (computer). There are now interactive tools and applications which young people can comfortably “play with” and learn in this strange new way which is foreign to older folk who were used to a class environment where you talked only when the teacher asked you a question!

It is against this background that I welcome especially our new students to RP. You chose to study in a TVET higher learning institution for different reasons; for some of you, you calculated that you may not be “bright” enough to pursue the more academic path to university, for others you thought that there might be better employment (or self-employment) opportunities for a TVET graduate. Whatever the case, I want to assure you that you made the right choice; TVET is the trend as many studies show about the emerging jobs of the future. That is why many governments around the world, including ours, are investing more and more in TVET. Those of you (1st year) went through the CBT/CBA system in levels 3-5 (year 10-12), and now you will be continuing in that system for level 6 and 7 (Diploma and Advanced Diploma) and for the Degree (BTech and MTech) for the few who choose to. I specifically stress those words “who choose to” because in most cases, it will be completely unnecessary to merely continue studying just for a “paper” or certificate. What matters most is the marketable skills you acquire which the labour market requires. A diploma sufficiently qualifies any students to compete on the labour market at a high skilled level. After all, nowadays the A1 graduate can compete for the same jobs as the A0 graduate in some “practical skilled” jobs. Even for the 10% who we shall encourage to go higher for BTech and MTech degree, in most cases we shall require them to have gone out into the job market in order to get industrial or workplace exposure and experience before admission. The CBT/CBA system will increasingly mean that the private sector will play a leading role and therefore many of you will spend proportionately more time in industry/workplace as a requirement for skills acquisition and competence based assessment.

As I mentioned above, this academic year will be a crash program, meaning that the holiday break between Semester 1 and 2 will be a weekend or one week only, in order to finish in November or December 2021. We are here to help you and to walk with you. We call upon you, both staff and students, for patience and perseverance because a lot of the new things we shall be doing will be new territory for most people, but as the cheerleader would say, Intore ntiganya ishaka ibisubizo !

It is now just over three weeks ago, on 15th of March 2021, since the start of Semester 1 of the 2021 Academic Year, having lost, due to Covid-19 pandemic, a period of six to nine months of 2020 for different batches of students. Ordinarily the academic year used to start at the end of September or beginning of October, hence the 2019/2020 academic year should have finished in June 2020 but instead it became 2019/2021 academic year, finishing in February 2021. This new academic year which started on March 15th, hopefully can be a crash program which finishes in December 2021 with the intention of starting the following academic year in January 2022 to finish about October 2022. In this way, if the following academic year started in November 2022 that could finish in August or September of 2023 which would allow for resumption of our normal cycle of October start of academic year in 2024 and September start in 2025. This, of course, assumes no new serious Covid wave or other pandemic!

It is amazing how many new words and terminologies have entered our language usage since the beginning of 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The challenges of the past 12 months have demonstrated the capacity of the human race to be resourceful and resilient in order to survive. Yes, we have been battered and our economy has suffered greatly, but we shall get through this and emerge stronger. For RP as a higher learning institution, many lessons have been learnt and other experiences which we shall continue to learn from. In my previous messages on this platform (RP Website), I have reminded our community – staff and students – that there is now a new normal in nearly everything we do. I have alerted you before to the fact that online learning is no longer going to be an add-on, or icing on the cake, but the major modus operandi, the core, in all teaching/learning activities in what is referred to as blended learning. The student will increasingly be in charge of their own learning which will demand a whole new set of habits and skills in personal management and discipline, not only for the student but for the teacher as well. We have in the past emphasized the need to shift to student-centered learning, but the teacher/trainer has been inadvertently reluctant to let go the reigns of control – the euphemism is called “class management”. A disruptive new reality is that the students can learn best in their own seemingly disordered or unstructured (chaotic?), but interactive medium of group sessions and playing with the machine (computer). There are now interactive tools and applications which young people can comfortably “play with” and learn in this strange new way which is foreign to older folk who were used to a class environment where you talked only when the teacher asked you a question!

It is against this background that I welcome especially our new students to RP. You chose to study in a TVET higher learning institution for different reasons; for some of you, you calculated that you may not be “bright” enough to pursue the more academic path to university, for others you thought that there might be better employment (or self-employment) opportunities for a TVET graduate. Whatever the case, I want to assure you that you made the right choice; TVET is the trend as many studies show about the emerging jobs of the future. That is why many governments around the world, including ours, are investing more and more in TVET. Those of you (1st year) went through the CBT/CBA system in levels 3-5 (year 10-12), and now you will be continuing in that system for level 6 and 7 (Diploma and Advanced Diploma) and for the Degree (BTech and MTech) for the few who choose to. I specifically stress those words “who choose to” because in most cases, it will be completely unnecessary to merely continue studying just for a “paper” or certificate. What matters most is the marketable skills you acquire which the labour market requires. A diploma sufficiently qualifies any students to compete on the labour market at a high skilled level. After all, nowadays the A1 graduate can compete for the same jobs as the A0 graduate in some “practical skilled” jobs. Even for the 10% who we shall encourage to go higher for BTech and MTech degree, in most cases we shall require them to have gone out into the job market in order to get industrial or workplace exposure and experience before admission. The CBT/CBA system will increasingly mean that the private sector will play a leading role and therefore many of you will spend proportionately more time in industry/workplace as a requirement for skills acquisition and competence based assessment.

As I mentioned above, this academic year will be a crash program, meaning that the holiday break between Semester 1 and 2 will be a weekend or one week only, in order to finish in November or December 2021. We are here to help you and to walk with you. We call upon you, both staff and students, for patience and perseverance because a lot of the new things we shall be doing will be new territory for most people, but as the cheerleader would say, Intore ntiganya ishaka ibisubizo !