School celebrates 50 years of existence

HUYE - Preparations are in high gear for celebrations to mark 50 years of existence at Ecole Notre Dame de la Providence de Karubanda (ENDPK), this Sunday.Sister Maria Goretti Mukarubayiza, the school’s director, says they have a lot to celebrate after succeeding in providing an ‘all round education.’ “Our motive was to produce a woman with a conscience, and this we have achieved over the last 50 years,” she said. Ecole Notre Dame de la Providence de Karubanda is a girl’s only boarding school, that was started by the Congregation of Catholic Sisters – Soueurs Auxiliatrices des Ames du Purgatoire in 1957 in the current Gisagara District. It moved to its present location, in Huye District in 1959 to become the first ‘Social’ girl’s school in Rwanda and Burundi. The school has taken giant strides in academic excellence over the years to become one of the most sought after secondary school in the country. The school runs both the science and humanities sections, it has always posted excellent results in national examinations.Last year, all students who sat for national examinations at ‘O’ Level passed. At the Advanced Level, all the 75 candidates who sat for national exams passed, 62 of which managed to get government scholarships. “Our students are competitive wherever they go. The values of hard work, mutual self respect, critical thinking and tolerance that we inculcated in them have guided them wherever they have gone,” Sister Mukarubayiza said. The student population has grown from 30 in 1959 to over 500 today. Ends