Maranyundo School

March 16, 2015

"What a Wonderful World It Would Be "

Today we visited two schools in Kigali. The Lycee de Kigali, the school that was visited by George and Laura Bush when they visited Rwanda, is located on one of the thousand hills with extraordinary views. The school has an interesting history. It was started in 1975 to serve Belgian and French students whose families remained in Rwanda in various positions after independence. As the nation continually searched for a stable government, the population of Belgian and French families in the area began to drop and the school began to consider admitting local students who could qualify.

Elizabeth King has written a chapter in Educating Children in Conflict Zones that records this time of education turmoil in Rwanda.

“Under the two Rwandan Republics (1962 – 1994) …secondary exams were graded in light of ethnic identity and ethnic equilibrium policies were partial to Hutu.”

The school closed in 1994 at the time of the Genocide Against the Tutsis. Today, under the direction of Headmaster Martin it is a school that the government puts on the agenda for visiting heads of state because it embraces the ideal that all Rwandan youth must receive a high standard of education.

(A bit of gossip? When George Bush was scheduled to come to the Lycee, his advance team notified Headmaster Martin that the President would be bringing a significant gift to the  school. Speculation was intense. Was he bringing computers? A variety of books for the library? A fleet of vans? He brought mosquito netting. ..certainly an important gift in a country plagued by malaria…but the Lycee had only 10% of students who slept in campus accommodations.)

Today the Lycee has 1400 students from the Kigali area and about 200 students from rural areas who board. The campus also has housing for 27 of its teachers. We visited their science labs as we continue to seek designs for the new science labs at Maranyundo. A lab technician takes care of all lab materials and set-ups for the teachers. A head science teacher meets regularly with his staff to develop “student centered lessons” with an emphasis on lab work in biology, chemistry and physics.

The second school we visited was also on a hill with spectacular views of the city including the National Stadium. The Wellspring Academy was started the same year as Maranyundo and serves students from elementary grades through secondary. Like Maranyndo, they have been adding a grade each year; now they are adding the secondary grades. There will be 600 students. The school follows the Cambridge International Curriculum  and has a strong Christian tradition. The website is informative:

http://www.wellspringacademy.org/  and gives you a sense of the many models of schooling that are springing up throughout the country. The Headmaster, School Principal Martine, is a soft spoken, gracious educator who clearly admires the work of Sr Juvenal and her staff. Her focus on careful interviewing of prospective faculty and her continuing efforts to develop her teachers is impressive. She and a Deputy Principal are focused on making sure teachers develop in their craft.

The conversations that spun out in each of our visits reflect the global issues that concern educators everywhere. Educators from distant school districts…(thousands of miles apart!)…in different cultures,  can immediately share the discourse of the challenges and rewards of teaching the young of our communities. Imagine if these global educators could have opportunities to share more often…to speak honesty and thoughtfully about the ways we can support one another. As the song imagines, “What a wonderful world it would be!”