So its not a Public School after all

So I had a revelation today, at this redundant meeting. I'll get into the meeting later.. BUT "public schools" here not not funded by the government. 


This is how it works.. Kids pay a fee at the beginning of the year, which is about a dollar (when converted) with this amount, the school is expected to run an entire school year. Not every kid even pays that fee, however they are still attending classes. 


Knowing this culture maybe about 50% of the students pay this fee and the rest don't. Nothing is done about it by the director or the school. Kids are still allowed to attend classes.

Just a Guess based on what I've seen....
So, the land is there for the school and maybe a few classes put up by the government. However mostly what I've seen, is NGO's or us that build extra classrooms.


The teachers are paid a salary by the government and this has nothing to do with the school. Teachers are sent by government to the various schools. This all done in Dakar by the "education department." In some areas, mostly the villages, these teachers are highly disliked because they lack the passion and motivation. 


They are sent to this village school for a couple of years, so they can climb up the ladder and end up in big city schools.  This seems to be how most government workers are selected or placed. They are just sent by the government to a place to work for a couple of years. Like my supervisor, she was just sent by the government. P.S. she does not speak a leak of the language, that is used here.


Then the kids have to provides their own learning materials, pens, pencils papers. At the beginning of the school year, each student is given a list of materials that they should purchased. Forget about textbooks. Those are provided by the government when available. 


So I found this out because I was at a meeting for the computer lab my ENCN (predecessor) started, because, we were trying to regulate some issues as the lab has fallen on hard times. I just had the idea, why don't the school make the lab part of its budget and the government foots the bill. Then I got the explanation.

OH How Did The Meeting GO?
NO FREAKING WHERE.... people just kept saying the same thing over and over, till someone was like lets just pick this up another day :) WHOOPI