Beauty pageants are a tendency that has selected speed in Rwandan society. In addition to the annual Miss Rwanda beauty pageant, the largest event on the social calendar, nearly every weekend there’s a beauty pageant organized. Over the full years, other smaller beauty contests have picked up momentum in schools steadily, secondary schools mostly. Organizers say these events are a platform to empower girls and they’re organized among different schools with an overall winner crowned the beauty queen of high school. However, month Dr Papias Musafiri last, the Minister for Education, put a last end to these pageants, arguing an impact could be experienced by the practice on the quality of education.
The directive required immediate impact and affects schools from nursery to secondary level. Lydia Mitali, the officer in charge of Girl Education at the Ministry of Education, clarifies that the Minister’s decision to ban beauty pageants in high schools is justified, adding that colleges organizing such contests did not seek advice from the Ministry. She records that there surely is nothing successful in subjecting students to beauty contests.
It only distracts them from the primary reason why they may be in school. “We have no record filed on this program basically, so banning pageants was the smart thing to do. As the Ministry of Education, we weren’t consulted the academic institutions are our responsibility yet. Also, the pageants don’t give any productive results even,” Mitali says. “If you look at the campaigns we bring with regards to women’ … Read more



