The data reflects the respondents’ thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about English as a mark of education. The results from the questionnaire (92%, = 0.0001 and 71%, < 0.0001)
indicate that the majority of principals and teachers perceive English as a mark of education. The responses to the questions in the survey indicate that the majority of educators agree with the statement, English is a mark of education. A comparison between the educators’ perceptions about English as a mark of education indicates no significant difference among
16
Even if French is no longer recognised as the instructional language in Rwanda and banned from various uses, it is surprisingly still kept in the National Constitution as an official language alongside Kinyarwanda and English.
rural and urban principals (p = 0.1481) and rural and urban teachers (p = 0.1020), which means that the majority of educators in both rural and urban schools have the same perception of English as a mark of education. There are varied reasons for these perceptions. In interviews, educators highlight that being able to speak English in Rwanda is an asset that grants a person social and academic respect and confers on him/her the mark of an educated person. This idea was repeated by participants in interviews and was best expressed in one principal’s statement, as follows:
… today in Rwanda, English is the mark of education! I am sorry to take you [researcher] as an example, but you are very lucky to be fluent in English and French, but I think people respect you now because you speak English (PUS1).
This principal clearly regards English as an empowering language. The speaker attributes the power of English to its prestige (…today in Rwanda, English is the mark of education!), which promote people’s attitudes towards English (…but…people respect you now because you speak English). The speaker suggests that English empowers its users by providing them access to respect in the Rwandan community. In addition, the results for the statements, English is important for an educated person and Educators who teach in English are the most respected clearly indicate that the great majority of educators believe that English can change one’s social and intellectual standing. This perception, adopted by most French-speaking teachers after the shift of the MoI from French to English, may be attributed to the reduction of the use of French because of government decisions regarding as the removal of French from the instructional languages in 2008, its replacement as the MoI, taking Radio France Internationale (RFI) off the Rwandan air, and the closing the French Cultural Centre in Rwanda (Steflja, 2012).
Furthermore, the interviews reveal that English is a requirement for access to employment in education. For instance, four teachers who were interviewed believe that they will not keep their job if they cannot teach in English as one of them puts it:
Rwandans believe in being educated in English and I also do. For instance if you are teaching here, and you can’t teach in English, you lose your job! (TRS2).
This example reveals teachers’ lack of job security, because if they cannot teach in English they may lose their job. However, this instability is not only limited to their careers in education because teachers show that, even if they leave the education sector, they do not have any hope of securing a job in another sector if they cannot use English. One teacher states:
...it is not easy in Rwanda to get a new job if you can’t speak English. I always see in job publicities saying, ‘fluency in speaking and writing English is an asset’ as if fluency in English is qualification! (TRS1).
As expressed in the participants’ statements, their perceptions of English as a mark of education may be attributed to political propaganda under the influence of globalisation. In its Education Sector Strategic Plan 2010-2015, the Rwandan Ministry of Education states that, in order to achieve the government’s goal of developing a knowledge-based and technology-led economy, there must be a consistent implementation plan for the use of English as the MoI (MINEDUC, 2010). This plan was introduced after Rwanda had joined political and economic international organisations such as the EAC and the Commonwealth. In order to motivate the people of Rwanda in general and teachers in particular to learn and use English, there were training plans and sensitisation regarding the benefits of using English and making it a mark of education (Samuelson & Freedman, 2010). It seems that educators in this study may have succumbed to the government propaganda regarding the value of English for Rwanda.
Another possible explanation of the educators’ attitudes towards English as a mark of education is that, after the 1994 Genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda, any English-speaking Rwandan had improved chances of securing a job in private companies and government, as opposed to those Rwandans who were French-speaking. This may have been influenced by the government’s policy that adopted English as the language of facilitation for the national reconciliation, and for economic incentives (Steflja, 2012). Having a command of English is regarded by private companies and certain public institutions as being a step towards career promotion and higher pay (Euromonitor International, 2010). According to the Euromonitor International (2010) report, there has been a 20% salary gap between professionals with and without English skills. In education, many investors created English-speaking schools because of the demand from repatriated English-speaking parents. These schools employed
foreign and Rwandan English-speaking teachers, and they were well remunerated (Jemimah, 2011). Teachers who remained in public French-speaking schools did not get the same advantages as their counterparts in private English-speaking schools, and thereafter some French-speaking teachers may have regarded English as more valuable than French and regard an English education as more empowering than a French one.
However, even if educators value English as a mark of education in Rwanda, the majority of principals (67%, = 0.0482) and teachers (63%, = 0.0416) feel that English is not a sine
qua non of pursuing one’s studies at further level because they disagree with the statement, If a person cannot speak English, s/he cannot pursue her/his studies after school. In other words, educators regard English as the language of scientific, social, academic, and intellectual integration but do not take it as the only language for successful learning. From another perspective, after the shift of the MoI, not all teachers, lecturers, and students were happy with the shift, because there were some who felt that it was abrupt and Rwanda needed a transition that started with both French and English as media of instruction (Jemimah, 2011; Steflja, 2012). This feeling emanated from the fact that after the shift, many available teaching and learning materials were still in French and most teachers were unable to translate them into English (Jemimah, 2011). In addition to this explanation, due to various language backgrounds and language preferences, educators are likely to have different beliefs on the language that can favour their personal scientific growth, and most of the time, their preferences may be based on personal feelings about the language they understand and speak better.