Help improve schools in St Louis, Senegal

Good quality education is vital to the development of a country and its people, but in Senegal, school completion figures are low. Only 52 percent of children enrolled in primary school complete their primary education and 70 percent of women are illiterate.

So it is necessary to invest in education and to build more schools and classrooms. Constructing these to a good standard helps to promote the idea that education is of value, and using local workers stimulates the local economy. Involving local people, parents and teachers from the beginning, helps establish a feeling of community ownership and pride in the school.

The project

Plan is working St Louis, northwest Senegal, to improve 50 schools and provide children with quality education, as well as strengthening the communities’ ability to maintain the schools long into the future.

There are two essential areas of focus:

School improvement

Key activities will include:
• Construct and rehabilitate 20 classrooms
• Construct and rehabilitate 25 blocks of toilets and install water points to ensure hygiene in schools
• Equip 50 schools with materials to maintain the facilities (brooms, buckets, disinfectant and so on)
• Organise community health visits and provide first aid kits in each school
• Create school gardens and promote re-planting trees, for shade and as a vocational training tool for pupils
• Improve education through development of sports activities and create quiet reading areas

Training

Key activities will include:
• Analyse schools ability to reach its goals and develop school improvement plans
• Establish and train 50 School Management Committees in project planning and management
• Train trainers on good hygiene and sanitation practices, gender, how to involve children in training of other children
• Train children on good hygiene and sanitation practices to promote children’s participation in creating healthy schools
• Organise a competition for the most healthy school
• Mobilise campaigns to promote child rights, health issues and participation in civil society
• Introduce child-to-child counselling and support (including training for teachers and pupils)
• Organise information forums and national workshops to share experiences on the project and to disseminate learning

Community participation

Plan’s aim is to reach the point when the communities have the skills, knowledge, confidence and resources to manage without assistance. Community participation and training is at the centre of this strategy. The emphasis on community participation in school management encourages ownership of the project and provides the community with trained and experienced individuals who are able to serve the community long term.

How you can help

Please donate today by contacting us on 020 7482 9777 or at supportaproject@plan-international.org.uk

If you have any questions about this project please don't hesitate to contact us. Thank you for your support, it is greatly appreciated!