History teachers acquire new skills in teaching Genocide studies

As 10 days remain for the 75th commemoration of the Jewish genocide and about 2 months for the 26th commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsis, teachers continue to educate themselves of the history of the genocide for more insight.

Teachers in secondary schools in different parts of the country have spent about 3 days learning about the history of the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda as well as the Jewish Genocide. The teachers say the information is important as they struggled teaching the history they also didn't know correctly.

Jean Boniface Buranga, a teacher from Ngoma District said that at times some teachers were embarrassed of talking about what happened because of how it happened and fear of hurting anyone emotionally or psychologically.

“There are times we were embarrassed of talking about what happened because we teach children who come from both survivor families and perpetrator families and you fail to get a proper way to address it because you are trying to avoid hurting some students or even yourself having been affected by the history and you get caught in emotions in front of your students,'' Buranga said.

One of the historians of the genocide against the Jews Kate WECKESSER, from the Educator’s Institute for Human Rights (EIHR) says genocide education requires attention and comprehension.

The Executive Director of AEGIS Trust, Freddy Mutanguha explained that educating teachers on the history of the genocide a positive direction towards uprooting genocide ideology.

“A teacher spends more time with students, same as parents when children go back home. So a teacher equips the children with information, I can also say that these children are the future of Rwanda. It is important teachers understand the history for them to teach appropriately so that students are enabled to fight genocide ideology even in the future,'' Mutanguha said.

Israeli Ambassador to Rwanda Dr. Ron Adam says that teaching the history of the Jewish genocide and genocide against the Tutsis is important to prevent future reoccurrence.

On January 29, the Holocaust Memorial Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a catastrophic event which claimed 6 million lives in a period of 4 years will take place in Kigali. This comes as Rwanda also prepares for the 26th commemoration of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis which claimed more than 1 million lives in 100 days.