MPs okay city school re-opening

KIGALI - Members of Parliament have given a go-ahead for the re-opening of Ensengnement des Sciences Appliqués (ESA) in Gikondo, Kicukiro District after making the hygienic standards required by the Ministry of Education. ESA was closed late last year after a parliamentary probe team, exposed poor hygienic conditions at the school. The deputies had said that the poor hygiene conditions put student lives at a big health risk. The probe committee report concluded that the administration was incompetence to run the school on the required standards. The school had over 750 students, the majority of them Genocide survivors who are catered for by the Fund for Survivors of Genocide (FARG). The president of the probe team which made the report, Bernadette Kanzayire said that ESA had at the time of their last visit on January 15, completed most of the renovation works. On Wednesday, MP Kanzayire said that the Ministry of Education would first visit the school to see whether it can re-open and catch up with the rest on the academic calendar. Schools opened countrywide two weeks ago for a new academic year 2008/9. “The probe team found most of the work in the final stages and there was no reason as to why we should keep that school closed,” Kanzayire said. She said that the school administration had installed water in the toilets, expanded the girls’ hostels and the dinning rooms. “At the time of (our last) visit the probe committee members found that the school had constructed enough study rooms, constructed a school fence and built a modern kitchen which was among the requirements by the ministry,” she explained. She noted that the school’s administrators were working hard to complete a perimeter fence that will protect students from external interference. The State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary of Education, Joseph Murekeraho, said that the school had responded positively to their demands. He said he plans to go to the school and see the progress. “We must first see whether the school has accomplished all what we had asked them to do before we can allow them to operate,” he said. Agatha Musharankwanzi, the legal representative of Association des Parents pour d’Ensengnement des Sciences Appliqués (APESA) and the proprietor of the school said yesterday: “We are seriously working on the remaining part of the requirements by the ministry.” She said that they are well on course to beat the April 21, 2008 deadline, which the ministry of education set for them to fulfill certain recommendations. Ends

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MPs okay city school re-opening