Four Roads from One Classroom: Reading about Educational Paths and Career Choices

1Before you read

1. Why did you choose your combination? Was it your interests, your results, advice from someone, or something else?
2. Name three kinds of institution where a young Rwandan can study after S6.
3. The article's title is "Four Roads from One Classroom". What do you expect the four "roads" to be?

2Paths through Rwanda's education system

3Reading: Four Roads from One Classroom

A feature for a school magazine, written by Ganzaa. The four friends and their teacher are imagined; the routes they take are real.

1 In 2019 four friends sat their O-level national examinations in the same classroom, two desks apart. Seven years later they are on four different roads. None of them regrets the choice they made, but all four say the same thing: it took more thought, and more asking, than they had expected.

2 Ingabire took the most familiar road. She chose a science combination at A-level because biology had always been her strongest subject, and after S6 she won a place on a nursing degree at the University of Rwanda. She is now in her final year. "Good marks told me what I could study," she says. "They didn't tell me what I would enjoy doing every day." So, during the holidays before she applied, she spent a morning at her local health centre and asked a nurse to describe a normal shift. "She talked about night duty, about patients who were frightened, about paperwork. I went home and thought: yes, I still want this. If she had painted it as easy, I wouldn't have trusted her."

3 Mugisha never wanted to sit behind a desk for three more years. After S3 he went to a technical secondary school to learn electrical installation, and from there to one of the colleges of Rwanda Polytechnic, where he earned a diploma. Today he installs solar power systems for a company in the Eastern Province. "People used to say that technical school was for students who failed," he says. "My classmates and I were employed before some of our friends had finished their degrees." He is now saving to study part-time for a Bachelor of Technology. "A diploma got me in the door. Further study will get me promoted."

4 Keza chose earliest of all. At sixteen she entered a teacher training college, because she had spent every school holiday helping her younger cousins with their reading and had discovered that she was good at explaining things. Now she teaches a Primary 3 class in her home district. "Teaching is not something you finish learning," she says. She is studying part-time for a degree in education, using the school holidays and her evenings. "My pupils keep me humble. If an explanation doesn't work, they tell me at once."

5 Habimana's road was the least straight. He took a humanities combination, hoping to study law, but his S6 results did not earn him the university place he wanted. "For a month I did nothing but feel sorry for myself," he admits. Then his uncle, a tailor, offered him an apprenticeship. Habimana learned to cut and sew, and later took a short evening course in bookkeeping and marketing. Three years on, he runs a small workshop that makes school uniforms and employs two people. "Not getting that place felt like a closed door. It turned out to be a different door. I still read about law, and I may study it one day, but I no longer think there is only one right moment to learn."

6 Their former career guidance teacher, Mr Nsengimana, is not surprised by the variety. "Students often ask me which road is best," he says. "I tell them it is the wrong question. Ask instead: What do I enjoy? What am I good at? What matters to me? And what will people need, and pay for? Then go and talk to someone who already does the job. A road chosen with your eyes open is the right road, even if it bends."

4Comprehension

Questions 1 to 5 ask what the text says; 6 to 8 ask what it means; 9 asks for your judgement.

1. Which route did each of the four friends take after S3?
2. What did Ingabire do before she applied, and why?
3. What qualification did Mugisha earn, and what does he plan to do next?
4. How did Keza discover that teaching might suit her?
5. What happened to Habimana after S6, and what does he do now?
6. Ingabire says, "If she had painted it as easy, I wouldn't have trusted her." What does this tell us about the nurse's description, and why did it help Ingabire?
7. In paragraph 5, explain the metaphor of the "closed door" and the "different door".
8. Mr Nsengimana says the question "Which road is best?" is "the wrong question". Why?
9. Which of the four friends made the wisest choice, in your opinion? Use evidence from the text, and consider whether "wisest" is even the right word.

Show answersHide answers

1. Ingabire: general A-level (a science combination), then university. Mugisha: a technical secondary school, then Rwanda Polytechnic. Keza: a teacher training college. Habimana: general A-level (a humanities combination), then an apprenticeship.
2. She spent a morning at her local health centre and asked a nurse to describe a normal shift, because her marks told her what she could study but not whether she would enjoy the work.
3. A diploma from a college of Rwanda Polytechnic. He is saving to study part-time for a Bachelor of Technology, to get promoted.
4. By helping her younger cousins with their reading in the school holidays, she found that she was good at explaining things.
5. He did not get the university place he wanted. After a month of feeling sorry for himself he became an apprentice tailor, took a short course in bookkeeping and marketing, and now runs a workshop that makes school uniforms and employs two people.
6. The nurse described the hard parts honestly (night duty, frightened patients, paperwork). Because the picture was honest, Ingabire could trust it, and her choice was based on the real job, not an idealised one.
7. Missing the university place seemed to end his plans (a closed door), but it led to another opportunity, the apprenticeship and his business (a different door). The metaphor shows a change in how he sees failure.
8. Because there is no single best road for everyone; the right road depends on the person's interests, strengths and values and on what people need. The useful question is about the student, not about the road.
9. Open answer. A strong answer notices that all four made informed choices (Ingabire visited a health centre, Keza tested her talent, Mugisha followed his wish for practical work, Habimana adapted), and may argue that the quality of the decision matters more than which road was taken.

5Vocabulary in context