Rwanda’s redevelopment efforts have concentrated on establishing a new economic trajectory for the country, one
which places a strong emphasis on transformation from a subsistence-based society to a knowledge-based economy.
Becoming educated has been cast with a sense of urgency. Radio broadcasts now declare education, rather than
cows or land as in the past, to be ‘children’s inheritance’ and the key to unlocking children’s developmental potential.
Through its basic education policy, the government has focused on extending access so that more children,
particularly those from poor households, have more access to post-primary levels of schooling (MINEDUC, 2013).
By 2012, the number of girls and boys attending government-run primary and secondary schools had never been at
higher levels (NISR, 2012). While access to the formal education system has successfully and quickly been expanded,
commensurate efforts to ensure children receive a quality educational experience have proven challenging. Recent
policy reports have suggested that, in the context of rapid expansion of access, materials such as books and
laboratory equipment are in short supply; teachers are underpaid; and the country’s recent shift to English as the
medium of instruction has impacted on learning outcomes to a significant extent (Abbott et al., 2015; DeStefano and
Ralaingita, 2011; Paxton and Mutesi, 2012; Pearson, 2013).
Within this set of opportunities and constraints, little is known about how children understand this push for education for
themselves and the ways in which schooling informs how they think about their lives and the possibilities for the future.
In the following study, I draw upon data from 11 months of ethnographic research in a rural setting in Rwanda’s
Eastern Province in order to shed light on children’s subjective experiences of their education. Students occupy
distinctive social roles and spaces within the institutional context of the school. This study aimed to use their unique
vantage point to support a more comprehensive understanding of the ways in which national education policy is
understood and experienced within the local sphere.