The Head Teacher (Sister Mary) who is one of my personal heroes sent me this story about one of her teachers in Rwanda and I thought you might like to read it;
A SHORT LIFE STORY OF JEAN
D’AMOUR
TUYISENGE
Jean
d’Amour Tuyisenge is a Primary Four Teacher at St. Therese Primary School.
He was born in Ngoma District, Murama Sector,
Eastern province of Rwanda.
His name Jean d”Amour in English
means John Of Love. He was born in 1990 now 23 years of age. His Father Alfred Gasangwa
died
when he was only three years and his mother
Marie Therese Mukagakuba is alive but left Tuyisenge
when he was very young and was married to another man. Tuyisenge
then lived with his Maternal
Grandmother who brought him up in the best way she could.
The old grandmother much as she tried to care for the Tuyisenge,
Life was not easy for the young boy. At school
Tuyisenge was always late because he had to walk a long distance to school; he did not always
have what he needed ;despite
all that he succeeded well in class
and teachers liked him for his
academic excellence.
At Rurama Secondary School
Tuyisenge continued
to encounter serious problems of lack of school fees, scholastic material
,and had long journeys to make to and from school. Despite those problems he performed well in class,
was disciplined and set good examples in behavior and academics. As a result he
was trusted and elected a head boy among 450
students in the school. The school Leadership, aware of some of his problems,
permitted him to study free of charge for a period of two years.
Tuyisenge‘s favorite lesson was English
Language. In The District competition he came first and this opened for him an opportunity to participate In the National
Competition. After three years of Ordinary Level, he sat and passed
the National Examination with Distinction. He was admitted
at Sake Secondary School
studied Combination of Science lessons
of MCB (Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology); he had
done very well in those Subjects.
At the end
of Senior Six Tuyisenge
was expecting the National Examination and all of a sudden he was attacked my severe Malaria.
He sat for Examination while very sick, and
as result missed some points
to qualify for the Government University Scholarship. This put him down and for some time kept at home
without sense of direction.
Gilbert
Bisangabagabo, who worked with us told me about Tuyisenge and how he was now confined at his grandmother frustrated and yet with great intellectual capacity.
I was then looking
for a science oriented teacher
and Gilbert assured me that Tuyisenge was the best in the area and that an opportunity to teach would revive his hope for possible bright future.
When Tuyisenge approached me for a teaching job I interviewed his and indeed
I found him quite
bright young man. When he started earning
some bit of money he decided, with encouragement from his
fellow teachers, to registrar
again for senior
six, as private
candidate. He sat for the Exam again last
year hoping that he would
perform well to get Government university scholarship. He indeed passed
very well and to the standards he would
have qualified for the scholarship but unfortunately this year The Government has stopped those scholarships and Tuyisenge
again has missed
it.
This time Tuyisenge
is
quite firm; he has decided to
try it alone with the little funds he gets as a licensed teacher. He had been admitted
in Busogo university
to study Agriculture but he cannot make it. He has now opted to
study weekend University program in Klbungo;
he is studying
science subjects.
He teaches five days and on the weekend he goes to study. He does not know whether
he will make it especially with the little
funds available to cater for many needs.
I decided
to write about Tuyisenge because of special observation I made about him.
He has a way of handling pupils that has given best results in the School. First of all Tuyisenge is not trained a teacher. These years he teaches the class that has the largest number of pupils and majority are girls. It is amazing that his class is the most disciplined, serious class in the school. Pupils especially girls have been performing remarkably well in class and outside
class.
What he does is group
work; he makes
groups of four pupils
and in each group is a bright pupil who leads others. He encourages then to help one another
and as for him he just facilitates them and supervises class work . He told me this: “I help pupils
to trust in me and imitate me while teaching. I encourage them to memorize
immediately what I teach them because they have no time to revise lessons when they arrive
at home. I also encourage
them to be creative in their group work.”
Having interviewed Tuyisenge
about his life I asked
him what he would like to say to other young people who may have similar problems
like his . He
told me that they too should
learn to persevere, accept their stories and have positive
thinking as they try to shape their future .
His vision he said is to get the best out of the
little he has at hand.
