Category: School build

On May 7th 2021 officers of Hundee Barumsa Warqinaa Dachaasaa (WADA) visited the proposed site of the Workneh Dechasa Memorial School. This is WADA Secretary Hirpa Abu’s account of the visit.

Good morning all!!

We, the executive committee of Workneh Dechasa Education Foundation board traveled to the birth place of Workneh Dachasa, Guder, Melka Dhaga on May 06,2021. The committee held the meeting with officials & community elders from Tokke Kutaye district and Guder town including children of the surrounding of Melka Dhaga.
The participants from the administration & education offices of the district and the Mayor of Guder town appreciate the objectives of the foundation and promised to support particularly the building of the Primary school. The official raised different questions and the committee members gave enough explanations. After discussion, officials suggested the followings:

Ø Complying of the school to be built to the standards/requirements of Oromia education Bureau;

Ø Immediate site plan and handover of the land as donation by Workneh’s family to the Foundation

Ø Obtaining ownership certificate and construction permit from Guder Municipality;

Ø Preparing detail project plan after taking Primary school design and signing agreement with the Oromia Education Bureau;

Ø Starting and accomplishing on time. This is a high concern for them as they experienced with other NGOs.

Community elders & children were very happy and they will wait eagerly for the beginning of the project. They hoped that the project will solve their multisided problems of the learning process. As they told us, the children were very tiresome after going a distance of 5km to 1o km to reach the school and not following the teaching learning processes properly.

The elders also promised to coordinate the community to support by their labor, delivering local building materials, giving security services, follow up and monitoring

Generally we had a beautiful day and accomplished our plan successfully.

At the end, the Committee thanks a lot Workneh’s family for their honored hospitality and invitation of delicious lunch and drinks not only for us but all other guests.

Goodbye

Hirpa Abu

Educational development plans in developing  countries have stressed the need to develop the economic, social, and political potential of their population through a public education system that has emphasised rural development. A look at  the educational system in Ethiopia where more than 80 per cent of the population lives in the rural areas, revealed that the educational system was geared towards urban development and neglected the rural sector. Hence, Ethiopian education was characterised by the concentration of educational resources in urban areas and selected regions and there is a need for more rural school to meet the gap.

The mission of The Workneh Dechasa Educational Foundation (WDEF) is to narrow this  gap between schooling in rural and urban areas  and  to establish primary school in Workneh hometown  Guder Town, Oromia. It is main aim to promote educational opportunities in disadvantaged communities in Ethiopia. The foundation also  recognises that Ethiopia has one of the lowest primary school enrolment rates and one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world and  aims to narrow the gap between schooling in rural a and urban areas in Ethiopia  in the area. 

There a number of advantages of building rural primary schools surrounding Guder area in Oromia:    

• Firstly, it provides an opportunity to build capacity and knowledge in the rural population, helping them to make informed decisions about their farms and to innovate in agricultural affairs. 
• Secondly, it also benefits the communities by employing teachers who would otherwise be without jobs and income. What is even more important is by benefiting students, families, teachers, and other stakeholders, those individuals develop the skills and stability to help others, thereby perpetuating an ongoing process of community development.
• Thirdly, it will help to address the shortage of schools for rural children in surrounding areas, where we are planning to build the primary school.  What is even more evident is that students the rural areas face difficulties over and above students in urban areas and the journey to school is likely to be longer in the area. 
• Fourthly, it will help in improving the lack of enough school places in the area. It can also cut down the current high class size that affects the quality of education in primary sector.

For these reasons, it is one of Workneh Dechasa Educational Foundation  (WDEF) priorities to work with the rural schools in Oromia,  particularly in Workneh home area as there are  demands from the community for  primary school for rural children.