Kagame explores new education partnerships

USA - PRESIDENT Paul Kagame, Wednesday, visited the US based Greater Atlanta Christian School (GACS) located in Atlanta, Georgia with an aim of exploring an education partnership between the school and Rwanda. The President is on a working visit to the US.In line with the country’s vision 2020, GACS, is set to establish a Central Africa School of Excellence which will be based in Rwanda and Kagame was given an overview of the school’s master plan that will serve about 2000 students when complete. According to the school’s president, Dr. David Fincher, the next step will be to determine the site of the complex in Rwanda. In his remarks, President Kagame said that Rwanda is committed to investing in education so that the country can develop based on the knowledge and skills of its people. “In Rwanda, education is a top priority because we consider it to be the key to unlocking our development objectives. All studies have shown that investments in human capital have invariably produced high economic returns,” Kagame said. “We have no doubt that education empowers people, enlightens them, and in the end creates wealth for them”.He added that Rwanda has made it a priority to provide access to quality education. The President and his delegation were given a guided tour around various sections of the school including classrooms, ICT laboratories and recreational halls among others. The school was founded in 1961. On the same day, Kagame travelled to Bentonville, Arkansas, where he met 81 Rwandan students who study under the Presidential Scholarship Program. While addressing the group, President Kagame urged the students to excel in their studies after which they should return home ready to apply the acquired knowledge and contribute to the country’s development process. The students study at five different colleges and universities in Arkansas under the Hendrix Program that supports top Rwandan students who qualify for the Rwanda Presidential Scholarship. When it began in 2007, only four students were supported by the program. To-date, the number has grown to 81 and this year, 30 more will be admitted. The students are pursuing degrees in Science and Technology with the largest group in the engineering faculty. Ends

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Kagame explores new education partnerships