Case study on work of Concern's work with School Councils
Monday, 25 April 2005
Case study on work of Concern's work with School Councils
“We function as a link between the school and the community”
The school in the village of Gonhane is so overcrowded that not all students can receive their education at the same time. Half of the 1,030 students attend school in the morning while the other half receive their education in the afternoon. Some children are taught in huts made of clay and sticks while others sit under the mango trees in the school yard.
Meanwhile the large school building which dominates the campus sits abandoned and empty. The war which destroyed the school ended in 1992 but since then the funds have not been made available to re-build the school so the schooling has had to take place in structures which are often not able to withstand the elements. The walls are made of sticks and mud and are topped by straw roofs which leak during the rains, causing classes to be abandoned. When it rains the straw roofs leak and the children are often sent home.
Concern have signed an agreement with the School Council to rehabilitate the original school building meaning the students and staff will have year round access to decent quality classrooms. While Concern are aware of the impact of such work they continually stress the importance of community involvement in School Councils which they feel are of greater long term value to the community in terms of understanding and realising their children’s basic right to a decent education.
The School Councils increase community involvement in the running of the school and also act as a link between the community and the district administration. The recent national de-centralisation of power from provinces to districts means that communities such as Gonhane can have a significant say in the inputs they receive from government. Concern are working at community and district level to facilitate the process of participative governance.
Despite Gonhane being the district capital of Innasunge, the school is in a very poor state.
Dulce Armando, a member of Gonhane Primary School, School Council, spoke about the Council’s role, “I was chosen to be on the school council because I understand this community and am well respected among the people here. The strong local knowledge on the School Council can be of help to the teachers, many of whom are not from Innasunge.
There are 15 of us on the School Council here in Gonhane. We function as a link between the school and the community. We also function as a link between the community and the district administration. Basically we are here to ensure that the students receive a good quality of education.
We do our best to ensure that children are attending school. We know who the truants are and do our best to make sure that they are going in every day. As such we do a lot of the work in the community that the teachers cannot do. We also cover for the teachers when they are absent so the presence of an active School Council, which I believe we are, can support a school greatly. Sometimes I end up filling in for a teacher three days out of the week.
However we also have our own work to do and our own problems to deal with. Everyone in Gonhane is suffering as a result of the disease affecting the coconut trees so we have to come up with other sources of income. This is why I feel we should be given some money for our involvement on the school council.
In the past so much has been wasted. The previous headmaster took most of the money that was designated by the government for the school. He is no longer on Innasunge and, as you can see, the school is in a pitiful condition.
Overcrowding is a massive problem in this school. The school is so overcrowded that all the children cannot attend at once. Half the children attend in the morning while other half attend in the afternoon. But the conditions remain crowded. As far as I know there are around 60 children in each class, the kids are basically on top of one another. Combined with the fact that the standard of teaching is very inconsistent and the children rarely have the right books, the standard of education here is very poor.
We are very happy that Concern are providing infrastructural improvements to the school here in Gonhane. We also feel that the accommodation should be built for the teachers as so many of them live far away which means that they are often late or absent.
When I see what is happening to the coconut trees here, I fear for the future of the children. It is hard to see how they will support their families in the future. This is why securing a good education for these children has become even more important.
It is our children’s right to have a decent education. I’m not sure I was aware of this before but it is very clear to me now. We need smaller class sizes, books for our children, decent classrooms and quality teachers.
Concern have told us that we must work with the government to ensure that they fulfil their obligation to provide the people with a proper education.
We are supposed to be working closer with them but in reality this has proven quite difficult. I think the district is becoming less corrupt which is a good thing but to be honest, we really have to push them to get anything out of them. If we say nothing they will do nothing. It is difficult to follow anything through with them because the staff are constantly changing.
I suppose the lesson we are learning from this is that we need to keep pressurising the district. That’s why it’s so important that Concern are here. The district is aware that Concern are watching.
To be honest though, the main thing we are concentrating on is the re-construction of the school which Concern is funding. This is viewed in the community as a very significant development. It makes us feel better about ourselves. Nothing like this has happened in Gonhane for a very long time.
HIV and Aids is a big problem here. The levels of education are terrible and of course there is no testing on the island so people don’t know if they are sick or not. So, in many ways we are blind to HIV.
Concern have provided training on HIV and Aids to the people here. This has been extremely important because there has been a major shortage of information in this area. The training was very thorough and we were encouraged to spread the information into the wider community. Personally, I have spoken to Christian, Muslim and Seventh Day Adventist groups about the issue. I have explained to them what I was taught about HIV and Aids and told them that they should be using condoms. The other members of the School Council have been doing this also.
The response has been very good. We are losing so many to this disease, so of course people are ready to listen. I think people have really grasped the message. They have changed their attitude to sex and are putting what they have learnt to practice. Condoms can be bought at the market very cheaply. Three condoms cost only 1,000 Meticais (in September 2004, $1=c.2,400 Meticais).
There is a big problem here with witch-craft, some families are particularly bad for it. Women leave their homes at night and fly around naked doing evil things. On the mainland people are particularly afraid of people from Innasunge because of the amount of witches and wizards here. They are making many people sick. Some people are dying of Aids and others are dying because of witch-craft.
When the Portugese were still in charge we had access to vaccines on Innasunge but now there is really no health system to speak of. As a result people have to go to traditional healers to deal with sickness.”
Written by Danny Rowan
