Rwanda school sports federation (RSSF) has confirmed the participation of 19 schools in this year’s East African post-primary games scheduled for August 23-30 in Lira, northern Uganda.

FEASSA is the acronym for Federation of East African Secondary Schools Association, which joins the interschool’s champions in various games from all over EAC member states plus South Sudan that will be taking part in the games for their second time after attaining independence on July 9, 2011.

"The selection of teams put in consideration two criteria, the teams’ competitiveness capacity and the budget boundaries for the games,” the Director of sports in the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) Paterne Rwigema told this paper. 

The 19 Rwandan teams will include; APE Rugunga and ESI Gisenyi (boys’ football), Solidarity academy and APAER Kabuga (girls’ football), ES Kigoma and Saint Aloys Rwamagana (boys’ handball), ET Mukingi and APAPEKI Cyuru (girls’ handball), Lycee de Kigali and College Amis des Enfants (boys’ basketball) and APE Rugunga (girls’ basketball).

Others teams are: G.S Indangaburezi and Saint Joseph kabgayi (girls’ volleyball), Groupe Scolaire Gahini in netball (girls), Ecole Technique Mukingi in rugby (boys) and two athletics teams (boys and girls), each team will be made up of twenty athletes.

The remaining are two boys’ volleyball teams, this category’s finals are slated for July 20-21 in Kabgayi (Muhanga) and the best two will join the others for FEASSA games. 

The category’s semi-finalists are Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare, Rusumo high school, Saint Joseph Kabgayi and Lycee de Nyanza. 

Kenya dominated last year’s competitions in Bujumbura winning six titles, followed by Uganda with five titles, Burundi with a single title, while Rwanda and debutants South Sudan finished fourth and fifth respectively without a title.

In 2010 FEASSA games were staged in Nakulu (Kenya), In 2011 Mbarara (Uganda) hosted the games, last year’s games were held in Bujumbura (Burundi) while this year’s games are taken to Lira (Uganda).

According RSSF officials, Tanzania which snubbed last year’s games will host 2014 games, while Rwanda is planned to host them in 2015.