ABSTRACT
Rwanda makes a unique case study of how education policy is influenced by forces beyond national boundaries. This article will consider the impact of key international factors on current Rwandan education policy, with particular focus on Rwanda as a post-conflict society, exploring three quite different dimensions and sources of influence: the global and bilateral pressures related to foreign aid to education; the effects of migration arising from national and regional conflict; and the conceptualisation of genocide as a global tragedy. Rwanda’s situation as one of the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and, especially, the legacy of the brutal genocide of 1994, make it a particularly compelling case. As in so many contexts, schooling has historically been at least as much a part of Rwanda’s problems as part of the solution (Harber, 2004), and new education agendas clearly need to make drastic changes.
