| A Record Number of Students in the New School Year |
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During the first week of school we have no lessons; instead we use it for counting new students, admission, separation into courses, and also for distributing new school uniforms to our new students who have enrolled in the first year. We also use this first week to practice measurement taking. Oh, events like these always make me happy, because it is incredible to see how this village has developed during the past few years. I remember the first week of school several years ago. Back then, no one noticed that something important was going on. Twenty-something enthusiastic or curious individuals would come to school, purely to see what was going on there. They would stay in classes for a day or so, and then they would simply go their own way... This school year our Padri Vjeko Center will be attended by a record number of 327 students!Nowadays, when the school year starts, whole Kivumu is excited! Everyone shows up in the schoolyard: both students and their parents, and also little children who just can’t wait for their turn to enroll in the school. Our vocational school has attained the level of a respectable institution in the whole of Rwanda, and we caused an extra interest in our work a couple of weeks ago when we presented ourselves on the Expo Fair in the capital of Kigali. And in light of those twenty-something students/curious people from several years ago, today I can proudly say: enrollment is completed, and this school year our Padri Vjeko Center will be attended by a record number of 327 students! A total of 219 students enrolled in the first year (47 girls and 172 boys), while the second year has 108 students (35 girls and 73 boys). This is how it looks divided into courses/sections: one-year programs for electricians, welders and plumbers will be attended by a total of 73 students. Of that number, 3 girls and 29 boys will be learning to become electricians, 26 boys will be trained to be welders and one girl and 14 boys will learn the plumbers’ trade. The two-year programs (tailoring, carpentry and masonry) are far more crowded. There are 41 girls and 3 boys starting the first year of the tailoring course, and in the second year of that course there are 35 girls. Among the future carpenters, in the first year we have one girl and 30 boys, and in the second year we have 20 boys. Furthermore, one girl and 70 boys are starting the first year of the masonry course, while in the second year of that course we have 53 boys. During the school break we were equally diligent. I recently wrote about how, a couple of months ago, we constructed three new buildings with six new classrooms for our primary school. Well, recently, during the holidays, we also made new furniture for the classrooms: 54 desks and 95 chairs! And our plan is to make additional 100 desks and 200 chairs, so we are already getting to work... There is yet more news at our Padri Vjeko Center. We have started using the biogas plant which we have built ourselves! But, you can read all about that in a day or so... Translated by: Branimir Mlakić Photo Gallery |
