Research On The Two-Faced Education In The Processs Of Rwanda’s Nation-State Construction

Education can not only provide assistance for the long-term stability of society,but also sow the seeds of hatred.This has been confirmed by the Rwanda Genocide which astonished the world in 1994.In just three months,one million Tutsi people in Rwanda were slaughtered.After the genocide,the Front Patriotique Rwandais(abbreviated as FPR)government came into power.The FPR government re-established the concept of nationality through a reasonable and inclusive education system and thus dissolved ethnic identity,which made Rwanda usher in a peaceful revival.In this process,the ‘two faces’ of education are vividly manifested.Consequently,based upon the former researches made home and abroad,the dissertation chooses to take the two faces of education and the nation-ethnic group relationship as the research objects,following the historic logic to analyze the role of education in different historical periods in Rwanda,its performance,and the impact of education on nation-ethnic relations.Specifically,this research mainly adopts literature analysis and historical research as the methodology,supplemented by interviews,in order to maintain an exploration of the current situation in Rwanda.This paper believes that education plays a key role in the development of Rwanda: reasonable educational policies and teaching practices promote the process of national development;while negative educational policies and practices work in the opposite way.Finally,this dissertation is divided into four aspects:In the first part,the author mainly introduces the different roles played by Rwandan education in the pre-colonial and the colonial period.During the pre-colonial period,Rwanda effectively promoted the cohesion of various ethnic groups in the country through the elite civic education called “Itorero” and education actually played a positive role at this stage.During the colonial period,the colonial government began to adopt the strategy of “Divide and Rule”,and through discriminatory educational policies and teaching practices,deliberately supporting the Tutsi and oppressing the Hutu ethnic group.Education played a negative role in this period,leading to the solidification of ethnic identities,making the inter-ethnic relationship worse and worse.In the second part,the author mainly analyzes Rwanda’s education in the First and Second Republics.After Rwanda achieved political independence,the Hutu government began to retaliate against the Tutsi ethnic group and stigmatized the Tutsi ethnic group through the enrollment quota system,distorted historical citizenship education,discriminatory classroom teaching practices,and mass media education.Education in Rwanda at this stage obviously had a negative effect on inter-ethnic relations and continued to intensify ethnic conflicts.In the third part,the author begins to introduce the devastating impact of the genocide on Rwanda’s education,and what educational measures the FPR government has taken to ease inter-ethnic relations and rebuild the Rwanda nation.During this period,education began to play a positive role again,promoting social reconciliation,assisting in the realization of national rejuvenation.In the fourth part,the author attempts to analyze and summarize the positive and negative faces of education and its possible representations based on the Rwanda case,so as to provide useful reflections for other modern multi-national countries in Africa and the world.