Pupils of Ndama Cell in Karangazi Sector, Nyagatare District can breath a sigh of relief after getting a new school.

Ndama cell is 20 miles away from Karangazi trading centre on at Kigali-Kagitumba highway.

Over 6000 homes have lived here since 2004 when several pieces of land were gazetted for settlement of residents who had farms.

Going to school here was like a nightmare, only strong children would afford travelling about 10 miles to the nearest school, Akayange primary, or Groupe Scholaire Nyamirama, according to the cell executive secretary Gerald Rubasha.

Luckily for them, during the Army Week in May 2017, Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) launched construction of eight classrooms on the top of Akayange hill to help address the education needs here.

Today, over 1200 students have been enrolled in the new primary and secondary school known as Groupe Scholaire Ndama, where the snakelike paths to the far away schools were.

Both learners and their parents hail the RDF for the ‘dream school’.

The school enrolls pupils from primary to senior one.

Their stories are clearer while standing on top of the hill where the school is located.

They point to the valleys and the ridges which they used to walk through going to and returning from school.

Annet Cyibukayire is a parent. She says their children would grow up to 10 years old to start school at Nyamirama due to long distance.

Residents say the lucky ones are those who had families or friends elsewhere to host their children for schooling.

"The journey required a strong, healthy child to walk and brave the early morning cold and sometimes hunger at school,” Cyibukayire explained.

Parents say the hardest part was learners waking up at 4am to travel for over three hours to school.

Cyibukayire was lucky to have friends who accepted to host his three children to study at Matimba in Nyagatare.

"It’s very challenging to have children in someone else’s home but I couldn’t wait for my children to reach 10 to be able to go to school,” he told The New Times.

Emmanuel Singirankabo tried to take his daughter to relatives in Burera in Northern Province but things did not work out as "my daughter so often fell ill and eventually was brought home to wait until she turned 13 to be able to travel the 10 miles journey to reach school.”

Emmanuel Mwando Simba, the head teacher of Groupe Scholaire Nyamirama, where students from Akayange would go to study, says students from Akayange could even fall asleep in class due to fatigue.

"You could see most of them dozing off during class, especially after break,” says Mwando.

One of the pupils in Primary Two is now 14 years old.

She should have been in upper primary or secondary but she failed to travel the long distance and only resumed school after G.S Ndama was constructed.

The current challenge

But the head teacher, Richard Kigundu, says in some classes there are students twice the number the class can accommodate.

Many students from Senior Two and above still travel the long distance to Nyamirama to access secondary education.

The district authorities say they are yet to construct more classrooms to accommodate more students.

"The enrolment was high but we’re happy they turned up and we’re planning to construct more classrooms to accommodate the numbers,” Domithille Musabyemariya, the Nyagatare vice mayor in charge of social affairs said.

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