New Construction Has Begun! Bob Sanders and Graig Flach Help Place Bricks
Currently there are 3 “streams” of education, grades 1-9. This indicates how the school is organized in order to accommodate multiple classes in each of the available classrooms. Different grade levels attend classes at different times of the day in order to allow all grade levels to be able to use limited classroom space.
632 Students – from 6 villages in the area:
304 Girls
328 Boys
13 Teachers:
4 Female
9 Male
When school is fully staffed, 21 teachers required. Thus, 11 or 12 add’l teachers will be needed when the school is completely rehabilitated & new classrooms are constructed.
There is a shortage of accommodations for teachers. Some housing is available but more duplexes are being built this year. Some teachers currently must stay in village homes.
Children in the upper grades are allowed to board, however the dormitories are extremely inadequate. Children sleep on mats on the cement floor and must provide and cook their own food as well as do their own laundry. On the weekends they go home to get additional food for the week ahead.
Electricity will be brought to the school as soon as the government is able to connect the school to the new power lines in the area.
Villagers have contributed significantly to the construction efforts by providing the sand and also making the bricks needed for the new buildings. They have demonstrated real commitment to education by their efforts.
Go-Team Enjoys Fresh Clean Water from New Borehole Well
Dedication of the new borehole, completed just prior to our visit:
54 meters deep
Static water level is 8.5 meters
Dynamic water level is 21 meters
Yield 0.7 liters per second
Pump was installed at 24 meters
Now no concern of running out of water during dry season! (An old borehole at the school has been in use for many years, but its output is inadequate for the number of students and faculty.)
View of Makonkoto School from Hillside
We toured the dormitories, classrooms and teachers’ houses. Then we climbed Makonkoto Hill to get aerial view photographs of the school layout.