All projects

Nursery schools

Purposes of the project

To increase the school attendance by preparing young children (5 and 6 years old) for primary school By taking them away from home to school before the father or the mother can assign them work at home. Indirectly it generate some economic activity through the employment of 2 villagers.

Where

Villages were we are active, ready to take the challenge.

Description of the project

The state education system does not have nursery school. In the cities, there are private nursery schools. Their parents can afford the costs of the private nursery school. They want to make sure that their children will be ready for primary schools. In the remote villages that have the chance to have a primary school, only up to a maximum of 50% of the children 7 and 8 years old attend school. From one year to another, there is an attrition of at least 10%.

This low turn out and this high attrition can be attributed to many causes: parents not sending their children to school (field work, house work for girls, no money to pay the small school fees and or school supplies...), children feel uncomfortable at school (away from his habits, he has to learn in a new language French, he may have problem with the teacher...), the teacher might not be motivated by his / her work (because of the location: no electricity, no water, bad housing and / or because he is a teacher only to become a civil servant, not because he likes to teach).

We have tried to help in many of the above subjects: lunch for the kids at school, school supplies provided in the first year, talk with the parents when we are in the village, improvement of the working conditions of the teachers (better housing, clean water available nearby).

One of the problems that our projects do not cover yet is the adaptation of the kids to the school system. At 7 or 8 years old, they have already their own tasks at home and they might not be motivated to spend the day in school, knowing what is waiting at home for them. Most of the parents have not been to school, they do not really see the importance of it since the boy will be farmer and the girl will be married and go away from the family.

In the remote village there are no nursery schools. The parents cannot afford to pay for a private nursery school. Realization of a nursery school and the running of it would have to be almost 100% paid via sponsors.

Teachers would be people from the village who have gone through school and trained in Bobo Dioulasso in an existing nursery school.

The possibility for small children to develop in a nursery school would be very beneficial for the attendance into primary schools and in the reduction of the attrition through the years.

What is a nursery school in a remote village?

• One building with two rooms equipped with benches, board, books and toys.
• Two persons from the village trained to teach and take care of the children
• One outside play ground.
• Lunch would be provided to the children
• The building would be built close to the primary school where there is already water.

Challenges

• Motivation for parents to send young children away from home: distance to the nursing school
• Selection of the teachers: jealousy in the village, different ethnic group in the village
• Selection of the place where the teachers will be trained: we do not have experience in nursing school.
• Control of the management of the school: parents, director of the primary school
• Financing of the recurring costs: he long-term goal is to have those costs paid by the village itself. Villagers received loans for economical development. Some of the benefits of this development will have to be reinvested in their children. A nursery school fee can be introduced as it exists for the primary school and we could redirect the interests paid on the loans by the villagers towards the expenses of the nursery school.

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