Motta Primary School
Motta Primary School (MPS) is in the Awi zone of Ethiopia, south west of Bahir Dar and about 525 kms north west of Addis Ababa. The kebele has an estimated population of 3,439 (1,711 female) of mixed ethnic group (Agaw (6%) and Amhara (94%) and religion (Muslim - 94% and Christian - 4%), virtually all of whom rely on subsistence farming for a living.
The existing Motta school was founded six years ago by the late Mokonnen Hassen, one of the villagers and a great champion of children’s education. Since then, MPS has been rendering services free of tuition and other forms of payments to its students. In the current academic year, it has 235 students.
All classrooms are dark, mud-walled, and falling apart, making teaching and learning extremely difficult. In primary school, parents are generally responsible for building classrooms while the government provides teachers and textbooks. Because they are poor, parents cannot afford to build cement classrooms that meet the government standard, and students have been forced to learn in facilities that are dangerous to the safety of the children and the teachers. Other facilities like latrine, playground and drinking water are non-existent or grossly inadequate.
MPS does not have a library or science laboratory. Other than textbooks which are provided by the government at no cost to parents, students don’t have access to other age and culturally appropriate and curriculum aligned books. For parents, most of whom are illiterate and poor, buying books for children is not a priority.
The new project is fully funded by a single donor foundation and will strive to improve the quality of life of learners through quality education among other things, through
Replacing the present 5 hard-to-use mud classrooms with 12 new, well-lighted and ventilated cement classrooms, building and furnishing a new library and a science lab
Providing accessible, safe and clean latrine with hand washing basin separate for girls and boys
Replacing the current wooden longs by more comfortable student desks
Providing grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 education
Making the school greener, attractive and safe
Providing access to adequate and safe drinking water close to the classroom blocks and other school facilities
Progress
Construction of the new school is almost complete and it is set to be opened in 2022. Partners conducted learning assessments at MPS using the Early Grade Literacy and Numeracy tools developed by USAID in late June 2021. The results will be used as abase line to set improvement targets with teachers when the new academic year starts.
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