“Education For All” programme: the Minister of National Education inaugurates new school infrastructures at EPP Ankananavy, built with the financial support of the Kingdom of Norway

Bekily, 29 April, 2022 – At EPP Ankananavy, 5 school facilities were inaugurated by the Minister of National Education, Mrs. Marie Michelle Sahondrarimalala. With 5 buildings containing 6 classrooms for primary education, 1 Director's office and 1 library, 1 building with 1 classroom for preschool and 1 building for the Director's accommodation, these infrastructures were built and equipped thanks to the financial support from the Kingdom of Norway within the framework of the “Education for All” Joint Programme. The Minister-Counsellor at the Royal Norwegian Embassy to Madagascar, Mr. Andreas Danevad took part in the event, as well as the Director of the ILO Country Office for Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, representing UNICEF, ILO and WFP – the three agencies that support the Ministry for the implementation of the programme.

Since 2015, the Joint Programme "Education For All" in Madagascar aims to improve access and quality of education in the Atsimo Andrefana, Androy and Anosy regions. Classrooms, library and multimedia rooms, offices and housing for directors, canteens with kitchen and storage room, drinking water supplies facilities and photovoltaic equipment are the main works built as part of the programme.

Since July 2020, 32 complete schools including that of Ankananavy have been constructed. For the Regional Directorate of National Education of Androy, 172 classrooms, 60 canteens with kitchen and storage room as well as 13 complete schools have been built. The construction of 9 other complete schools will be completed by the end of the Joint Programme.

Representatives of the Kingdom of Norway and technical and financial partners reaffirmed their commitment to support the Ministry of National Education in the implementation of preschool and primary education programmes, as part of the development of the education sector in Madagascar. The Minister-Counsellor of the Royal Norwegian Embassy to Madagascar, thanked the Minister of National Education and her team for their strong commitment to all Malagasy children, and reiterated Norway's gratitude to the ILO for the long collaboration of more than 20 years in school construction across the island. Norwegian cooperation with Madagascar will continue after the Joint Programme which ends in June 2022, in order to continue to address the important education and socio-economic well-being challenges for the increasingly vulnerable populations of the South. The Director of the ILO Country Office for Madagascar conveyed the thanks of the three agencies to the Government of Norway for the constant and generous financial support to the education sector in Madagascar. He also welcomed the frank collaboration between the Ministry of National Education, the communities and the technical and financial partners for the improvement of the education of Malagasy children.

Since the implementation of the joint programme with Norway in the three southern regions, more than 400 classrooms and 450 health infrastructures have been constructed, rehabilitated and equipped, thus allowing more than 100,000 children to have access to high-quality and inclusive education. More than 30,000 primary and preschool teachers have been able to strengthen their teaching skills, with an increasingly greater contribution from communities to the functioning of schools.