Solar Power & Multi-Grade Classes: Keeping Children in School.
Keeping Children in School
19 March 2019, Ali Asabieh, Djibouti. Three years ago, when Soumia Mohamed Ahmed was a second grade, something arrived in her school which immediately changed her life. Solar Panels, High Definition Television sets, Photocopiers and a laptop were distributed to help teachers, teaching multi-grade classes improve the quality of educational content. This meant that for students like Soumia Mouhamed Ahmed aged 10, learning in a multi-grade class, the content being delivered would be innovative and easy to comprehend which would ultimately reflect also in her school grades.
To multi-grade or not
Since 2017, UNICEF in partnership with MENFOP with the support of Centre de formation desnEnseignanl de l’enseignement Fundamental (CFEEF) has been training teachers like Mohammoud Doualeh Wais from small rural schools to teach multi-grades. UNICEF has also been pioneering living schools that are solar-powered with multimedia kit built around a laptop, flat screen HD television set, photocopier, and other peripherals, all contained in a portable suitcase providing access to quality learning content. In rural village of Faradil near Ali Sabieh region of Djibouti, electricity is considered as luxury, but solar panels erected at school yards are keeping the lights on when the darkness emerges.
‘These solar panels make me want to come to school. It gets so hot all the time at home, but here at school it’s so much better with the fan. I spend most of my time reading listening to the television and taking my French lessons, with the easy guide on the television’
For this ten- year-old Soumia learning in a multi-grade class was a challenge in the beginning but now its easy owing to the multi-media lessons they have. Multi-grade teaching has been a feature of education in Djibouti for some time and given the specific geographical characteristics of Djibouti this reality is likely to remain so.
As she emerges from her classroom in her navy- blue and royal blue shirt school uniform, smiling broadly after reciting what was written on the chalkboard with ease, one can easily tell of a child enjoying her school work. She says she attends school every day and she does not miss her multi-grade classes.
‘I like reading books and now I have developed interest in watching television, here at school and seeing what other girls from other countries are doing. I am motivated I want to learn how to fix engines of big cars like the UNICEF car’
The Director of Faradil, Hassan Mohmed Mahamoud who is also a teacher takes us to the nutritious garden with well-watered vegetables for the daily meals of the children. He explains student enrollment at the school which has a total of thirty students and among them fourteen are females given the small number of children in the village. He explains that the training he attended on multi-grade classes made him tailor his teaching practices and better manage his time between children at different levels in the same multi-grade classrooms.
‘The multi-grade approach to teaching used to be very difficult for the 3 teachers here managing this school, it’s a new concept all together, but the training and financial support we are receiving from UNICEF has kept us motivated and it is beginning to bear fruits. The multi-media kit makes it a lot easier to teach different age groups all at once’.
UNICEF and its partners has supported teachers training and supervision in the management of multi-grade classrooms, and, directors training in planning and implementation of school project. The Directors who were trained have strengthened capacity to oversee the organization of meetings with parents, teachers and children to identify the needs in the schools.