Sonrise School Establishes Itself as Top Performing Primary/Secondary Boarding School
“We are educating job creators rather than job seekers” — Bishop John Rucyahana
B2R Engagement:
Capital campaign completed to build Sonrise High School; 2008 container program to provide equipment and supplies; and mobilize “borrowed talent” to teach and serve at the school.
In the aftermath of the genocide, Rwanda’s schools were decimated and the country was overwhelmed with at least 400,000 homeless orphans. In the midst of this devastation, Sonrise School was founded by Bishop John Rucyahana to be “light on a hill”. Bishop John’s vision was to create a boarding school that would set the standard for academic excellence and servant leadership development. It is not an orphanage - it admits fee-paying students - but a majority of the school’s students are orphans to demonstrate that every child is redeemable, no matter how needy.
Now entering its eighth year of operation, Sonrise is considered one of the top academic schools in the nation. At the end of every school year, Rwanda’s Ministry of Education administers national exams for every student in the country completing the sixth, ninth and twelfth grades. These test scores determine if students will be allowed to continue their education. Sonrise’s test scores have ranked it in the top ten schools in the country and all Sonrise students consistently pass their exams.
Sonrise School opened in 2001 with 200 students in primary grades 1-4 and has added an additional grade each year since. Today, the school has over 1000 students in eleven grades (primary 1-6 and secondary 1-5). About half of the students are orphans. The school will graduate its first high school class in 2010.
