This weekend is an important one in Rwanda, as the great migration has begun with students heading off to boarding schools across the country. The government sets the first day of school for the entire country–this year it is Monday, September 8. To avoid absolute mayhem on September 7, the government also sets a travel schedule for the students, depending on what district the school is in. Last week’s announcement of the travel schedule gave stern warnings to students to travel only on their assigned day. To understand why the government expects so much movement, it is necessary to provide some background.
Rwanda has compulsory attendance for 12 years, broken into Primary (P1-P6) and Secondary (S1-S6). For primary levels, students generally attend a local school. I am not certain about how prevalent private schools are at the primary level. Most students I have met attend, or attended, the local public school in Nyarushishi (nyar-uh-SHE-she).
At the end of P6, students take a national exam. If their scores are good enough, the government assigns the students to a boarding school anywhere in the country. My understanding is that students can preference three schools, but of course there is no guarantee the preference will be honored. If a student does not do well enough on the P6 exam, he attends what is called a “day school,” local public schools that generally are considered to have lower standards and poor success rates. At first blush, it is a blessing to be able to attend a boarding school.
The challenge we have found in Kibeho area is that when students are invited to a boarding school, families often cannot afford to pay for tuition. Though by American standards tuition is very low (I think the highest the Abana Foundation has supported is roughly $500, but most are in the $300 range), it is important to remember that it is very difficult to find jobs in Kibeho and many farm a plot of land to feed their families and get money only by selling any extra food they might harvest. It is not unusual for extended families to pool money together to send ONE student to a boarding school (no pressure on that student, right?). That is why the Abana Foundation started to fund scholarships for students.
At the end of S3, students take yet another national exam (better to say a series of exams…nine subjects with 3-hour exams each in a period of roughly two weeks). The results of this exam have three potential outcomes: a student who doesn’t succeed can get sent to a day school (worst case), a student can succeed but be sent to a different boarding school (often the case), and the test determinse what specialty he or she can study for S4-S6. For example, I might want to be a software engineer, but the government might send me to a teacher training program instead, based on my exam results.
I should note that one student we are supporting failed out of the boarding school after S2. He attended a day school and worked very hard to pass the S3 exam! Now he gets to attend a boarding school again. It seems like these cases are rare, but they can happen. Way to go, Claude! I just met his family today…he is pictured below showing me his cow.
This past Monday I visited one of the boarding schools in Kibeho called Marie Mercy. The school has approximately 750 students, boys and girls. The entrance to the school is pictured below.
The slogan on the gate “Luttez pour le succes” translates to “fight for success.” The school is set beautifully on the top of a hill overlooking a valley. I think I would just stare out the window all day. I could show all sorts of pictures that give you a sense of what the school is like, but I will choose just two.
I believe the dean of academic studies, who took us around the school, said that the maximum class size is 50 students. Formerly teachers moved from class to class and the students stayed in the same room. Starting this year, students will be moving instead. When he told me about the change, I suggested that it would be nice to have the classroom set up for whatever particular subject you teach. That was before I saw the inside of a classroom…I don’t think it matters much what subject is being taught here. There are not enough textbooks for all students, so they share or can check out a textbook if they need one.
The dorms were locked, so this picture is through a window. However, it gives you a pretty good idea of the sleeping arrangement. When kids head to school, among their school supplies are a mattress and a bucket to wash in.
One of the things I want to be very careful about in my blog is to not over-generalize. When I share my experiences, they are of a rather tiny area (Kibeho is technically a sector, with 25k people in it) in south Rwanda. Life is different in the capital city of Kigali, for example, or even of Butare which is 20 or so miles away. My observations cannot be extended to all of Rwanda or certainly not all of Africa. Even with the pictures above…they are from a single boarding school in Kibeho. I have no idea how similar other schools might be across the country. Anecdotally I can say that the students I have spoken with from Marie Mercy do not seem at all appalled by the conditions, which suggest they are not too dissimilar from other schools.
This post is getting way too wordy, but I will finish with one other thing you may be interested in. When a student goes to school, he or she stays at school for the entire term (approximately 3 months). There are three terms, with a 2-week break between each term when students can return home. Families can visit on one designated day of each month (visit day is on the first, second, third or fourth Sunday of the month, depending on what school you attend). One student told me that because her school was six hours away and travel was too expensive, her mom was the only one who came to visit and that was only once all year.
Education is different in Rwanda! When I was listening to the students, I kept thinking what American students would do if they were asked to live and study like they do here. Students at several different schools mentioned that they get to eat meat on one day of the entire school year, as a special celebration. I didn’t ask all of the students, but I have the sense that this is normal. Can you imagine?
I could go on an on about the differences. It has definitely been an eye-opening experience so far. School starts for me at The Children’s Academy next week. I will share more about the Academy and how it fits in with this picture in tomorrow’s post.
Until then, God bless us all!