A little known young amateur sculptor captured the local social media’s attention with his miniature version of Kigali Convention Centre made out of clay. The management of the Convention Center and the Radisson Blu Hotel immediately sought his contacts and invited him over. Definitely the young boy is talented. When The New Times crew visited Gisa at his home, as he was now news material, it discovered that they lived in very squalid conditions; a dilapidated shack, incidentally in one of the most affluent neighbourhoods; Kimihurura. The boy’s dream is to become an engineer, preferably an architect. A dream that might just remain that, as his father is even struggling to raise his school fees to finish primary school, let alone build a decent home. School fees? Whatever happened to the 12-Year Basic Education? While school fees have been scrapped and schools receive capitation grants, they always manage to come up with ways of dipping in parents’ pockets. They come up with all kinds of levies, even going as far as demanding money as incentives for teachers and other side expenses. What do schools use the capitation grants for? Burdening poor parents to keep teachers happy was not part of the deal, the deal was to keep children in schools and not discourage them, especially the most vulnerable. The Ministry of Education must definitely be aware of the practice as it has school inspectors all over. What has it done to address the issue? There must be many other Gisas out there who are nursing some hidden talents who can just afford to dream with little chances of realizing them.
