Centres for education and remedial courses (Centres de Renforcement Educatif et Scolaire - CERES)

		Sector : Education Location : Fianarantsoa region, Madagascar Local Partner : Association PROMES (Promotion Educative et Sociale) (Educational and Social Promotion) Start of Partnership : 2006

Context and Considerations :

Madagascar’s education system is affected by a lack of teachers and a simultaneous rapid growth of the number of students, in particular in the rural regions. These students, in many cases undernourished, often have to travel great distances in order to reach their respective schools and subsequently often find themselves forced to abandon their studies, despite of their intellectual capacities.

Solution Proposed :

The Malagasy association PROMES (Promotion Educative et Sociale - Educational and Social Promotion) and the IECD partnered in 2006 in order to fight the prevailing situation in the educational sector and school absenteeism.

The project’s aim is to create a centre for educational and remedial courses (Centre de Renforcement Educatif et Scolaire -CERES) in partnership with the local colleges in order to improve the Malagasy schooling environment. This will contribute to train the local young people so that they can become responsible actors contributing to the development of their country.
The CERES program wants to accompany the young people in their education. In order to do so, it offers special educational support, edutainment activities, a boarding school, a multimedia room etc. to some selected students. Furthermore, the project wants to strengthen the pedagogical capacities of all the teachers by providing pedagogical equipment and continuous training. Lastly, it also wants to build school canteens.

Impact and Results :

A local team of 20 persons has slowly taken shape and works actively in order to implement the project by defining and improving the necessary pedagogical supports. Since the beginning of the project, about 50 teachers and 150 students have benefitted directly from the first three CERES campuses which were created closely to three local schools. The 1500 other students from the partnering schools have also benefitted from the project, firstly from the school canteens as well as from the impact the pedagogical strengthening has had on the teachers. In 2008, progresses were perceived after the two first boarding schools were opened. At the beginning of the 2009 academic year, the third CERES campus was opened which aim is to prepare its students to join good colleges in Fianarantsoa.