The 2024-2025 school year looks promising for students of the Ngomo, Kabira, Kagugo and Karugunda primary schools located in the commune of Giteranyi, in Muyinga province. These establishments have been equipped with new infrastructure as a result of work related to the Rusumo project, implemented by Nelsap. According to municipal administrators, this modernization will open new horizons for education in this commune.
The Ngomo primary school has just been equipped with brand new premises.
On the morning of July 22, 2024, we arrive at Ecofo Ngomo, in the commune of Giteranyi in the Province of Muyinga. The school has just been equipped with brand new premises. As explained by Epimaque Murengerantwari, coordinator of the Local Area Development Program (LADP), these infrastructures were built as part of a government project financed by the World Bank via the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP), following the work related to the Rusumo project.
9 classrooms, a refectory, an office for teachers, toilets, etc. were built at this establishment. As Mr. Murengerantwari specified, these premises will be equipped with desks, benches and tables for the refectory, printers, computers, photocopiers which will be powered by solar panels. The construction cost amounts to more than 360 million BIF and these equipments have a value of approximately 70 million BIF.
A project that comes at just the right time
Next to these new buildings, there is another old building, made of adobe bricks. These are the old premises of this establishment. This one was built by the population of this locality during community work, about ten years ago. It includes 4 classrooms and a stock.
We enter the first classroom. 17 desks in poor condition, full of dust, (because this room is not cemented), serve as seats for the students. In front, we can see vowels written on the adobe bricks, others on a board put in place to complete a piece of blackboard hanging on the frame of this classroom.
Alexis Niyiragira is a teacher in charge at this school. He has been teaching there for almost 13 years. He tells us what they had to endure before the new premises were built. “You can see for yourself the state of these old premises,” he says. During the past school year, this establishment had 376 students spread across 4 classrooms. The first year had 164, the 2 th year had 121 and 91 in 5th year. Those of the 3do year and 4 do year, had been relocated to another school. They sometimes sat up to 5 per desk.
As this teacher says, to deal with it, they had no choice but to put them on double shifts. And this had a disadvantage for the learners who attended afternoon classes. The latter could not follow the classes well because most of them came to school hungry because of the poverty in which their families lived. This inconvenience thus affected their level of success. The lack of interest meant that there were many cases of dropouts at this school. Moreover, more than fifty students dropped out of school during the previous school year.
Beneficiaries marvel
Niyibigira says he is very happy with the construction of these infrastructures. He is confident that this will allow teachers to work in good conditions. “To hold a teachers’ meeting, we would gather under a tree here in the courtyard, because there was no room for teachers,” he recalls.
Leonard Habonimana: “In case of rain, teachers were forced to send students home for fear that these schools would collapse on them.”
As for the increase in the enrollment rate, this teacher says that this modernization has already borne fruit, because to date more than 156 new students had already registered in the first year. Joselyne Manirambona, a resident of this hill in Ngomo, says that these old infrastructures also presented a danger to the lives of learners. “Parents were afraid that one day these infrastructures would collapse on the students,” she says.
Leonard Habonimana, an administrator at the base on this hill, is not going to say otherwise. According to him, in case of rain, teachers were forced to send students home for fear that these schools would collapse on them. Which was not without harmful consequences on their level of success, because they wasted a lot of time this way.
Mrs. Floride Nduwayezu, administrator of the Giteranyi commune, thanks these development partners for the important projects carried out in this commune. “We have many children of school age but we did not have enough schools. We hope that with the construction of new premises, the school enrollment rate will increase. She adds that awareness meetings are planned for users of these public infrastructures with a view to taking care of them.
It should be noted that within the framework of the projects of works related to the Rusumo project, other fundamental schools were built and equipped in this commune of Giteranyi. These include among others Ecofo Ngomo, Ecofo Kabira, Ecofo Kagugo and Ecofo Karugunda.
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