Musanze-based Sonrise High School has been hit with a financial crisis, forcing the school’s administration to scrap some students off the sponsorship list.Those whose sponsorship was halted have been asked to contribute Rwf 60,000 if they are to continue with their education.Jean Pierre Rurangwa, the school’s head teacher, told The New Times on Wednesday that the financial instability threatened to hurt the school’s operations.According to him, after screening, 32 students were found to have parents with the capacity to raise the funds and as school commenced on Monday, 20 of these who had reported for class were sent back home. Rurangwa explained that the decision to scale down on the number of sponsored students was taken in a bid to generate income so as to enable the school maintain quality education.He said that those that were sent home are ones whose parents neither paid nor expressed commitment to pay in the near future.The amount was determined by a parent-teachers’ meeting held last month where measures were agreed upon to save both the Primary and Secondary sections of the school.Sonrise High School is an Anglican church-founded school and at least 290 of the students out of its total population of over 500 are sponsored. Most of the sponsorships are channelled through Shyira Diocese in Musanze district.In an interview, Eugene Rugambwa, Public Relations Officer at the diocese, said that some externally-based benefactors were affected by challenges such as the global financial crisis, with some even losing their jobs thus stopping the sponsorship.He disclosed that the students with parents or guardians who are genuinely unable to raise the fees will remain on the scholarship as per a directive from Bishop Laurent Mbanda, who heads the diocese.
