Villagers gather in their old run-down school building

Sandrangato new school building

The village of Sandrangato in Madagascar needed a new three room primary school with latrines. The total cost was £10,448 and thanks to a donation from GILBERT ASH working in partnership with the ADSUM FOUNDATION work will begin this month.

Sandrangato in the Rural Commune of Ambohibary, District of  Moramanga is located 131 kms east of the capital,  Antananarivo.

In 2006 the local community pooled their meagre resources and built a small, two-classroom primary school using basic,  locally available materials of timber, mud and thatch. Since then the number of school age children has increased and facilities are no longer adequate.  The original school is poorly equipped and is now in a very poor state.

There are two teachers – whose salaries are paid by the 128 members of the Parents Association  - partly in cash and in kind, (cassava and sacks of rice – 14 kg per parent per year).  76 children from Sandrangato and neighbouring villages are currently registered and attend this school. Some children walk – barefoot - 5 kms everyday. When it rains the wooden bridge linking the main village and the school is covered by water, and they are unable to cross the river. 

Due to the shortage of places and school benches half the children attend classes in the morning and the rest in the afternoon. But this reduces the normal number of teaching hours from 5h to only 3h30 a day -   making it difficult to cover  the year's syllabus.  This has a knock-on effect on exam results - which are poor.

Typical of all villages in rural Madagascar, Sandrangato is a very poor community. 100 school age children in the area are currently not in school due to the shortage of resources and space.