Schools

Schools and children assisted by Bifea Education.

At the moment (January 2015) Bifae Education supports four primary schools: two in Kingomen (Islamic Primary School and Kingomen Government School), one in Tabah and (as from 2015) one in Mbuluf. In the past 10 years some children, mostly orphans, have got a scholarship to enable them to stay at school and do their exams. These children get personal care. Not only the school fee’s but also the school costume and writing materials as well as books are provided for. When personal circumstances demand some medical aid or basic living assistance this is provided for. As a principle Bifae Education does ask 10% of these costs to be paid by the family of the pupil. Between 2006 and 2015 about 60 years of school fees have been paid to various children and in 2014 fourteen pupils have graduated who had a scholarship all through their school career. Of the five children presently that are enjoying a scholarship, 2 more are bound to graduate at the end of the 2015 school year.

Bifae Education beliefs that children without any primary education lack opportunities and can rarely contribute to society. As from the season 2015-2016 Bifae Education will supply 4 x 5 = 20 children with scholarships. The children are selected by the headmasters of the respective schools in accordance with the PTA (Parents Teacher Association) on each school. The criteria for selection are generally deprivation, motivation and intelligence. All of the children selected so far were children that face removal because of the inability to pay their fees. All of them passed the exams and during primary school proved to be among the most motivated pupils, most of the instances they were among the students with the very best results.

Beside caring for individual children Bifae Education also contributes to the well-being of the schools as a whole. In the past decade class rooms, water pumps, toilets, medical aid posts, sport garments and benches have been provided for.

Kingomen Government School

Kingomen Government Primary School has been in the Bifae program since the start in 2006. It is a big school (in some years there were as many as 500 pupils) and is quite far away from both Kingomen village (about half an hour walking) and Tabah (about an hour walking). A medical post, sporting garment for children, new benches, books for teachers, posters for education and various aids in building classrooms have been provided for in the past 9 yearsships stated above.

KGS is the biggest and most well of of the four schools that Bifae is helping currently. As from September 2014 there are 392 pupils. A major problem at the moment is the limited number of teachers. At the start of 2014 one of the teachers retired and another one was placed in a different government school, thus leaving only 5 teachers with a mean class population of about 80 pupils! In this respect Bifae Education can not help as it does not pay any salaries of teachers on a government school as a matter of principle.

Kingomen Government school has relatively good facilities but a shortage of teachers. The second from the right in the middle photo is the present headmaster Doh. Sama.

The priorities for the coming season would be the increase of the number of pupils with scholarships till five and also the purchase of books for pupils through the organisation Knowledge for Children as in practice most of the parents can not provide for books. One out of 5 or 6 pupils has sufficient books. The teachers try to cope with that problem by putting the pupils in small groups with one book.

Tabah Government School.

Tabah primary school was established in 2005 by Foulani people who wanted to end the very long walks of their children to Kingomen Government School. They started privately with 6 classes, only two classrooms and only one teacher which was Eugene Lensimo now member of the board of Bifae Education. When the board of Bifae Holland visited the school for the first time in 2006 it appeared that most of the Foulani (Burorow) children had no birth certificate. As you can not do exams nor get an official job later without a legal proof of your existence the birth certificates were fist provided for for all children. As the Foulani people do not have the habit of anniversaries some of the birth dates had to be estimated. In 2007 Tabah school was recognized as a government school. There are now about 90 pupils. A specific problem for the school is the lack of motivation of Burorow parents to send there children to school. Some of them are very deprived and/or do not see the necessity of their children to receive a proper education as they live from cattle raising.

Since 2006 a lot of investments were done by Bifae education. Two new classrooms were build as well as toilets. Also a medical aid post and new benches were provided for. In the building activities the parents were actively involved and when the truck with the roof could not make the final very steep ascent to the school the pupils themselves carried the metal roof towards their school on their own shoulders. From 2010 onwards a source of water a few hundred meters from the school was revealed and a lot of groundwork and building activities were undertaken to get the water to the school. Most of the water project was finished in 2014. However the last bit of pipes towards the water tap has been damaged by the cows and will have to be repaired. On two earlier occasions the cows had broken the fence around the school and demolished some of the walls of the school.

As from 2015 the priorities for Tabah School are the elevation of the number of scholarships until 5 pupils, the purchase of school books for the children (especially French and English, the official second and third language of the country), books for teachers and the plastering of walls and grounds surface inside the class rooms.

At 8 am the children assemble outside to sing the Cameroonian national anthem, in the middle photo you can see the quality of the water from the source is now ok but as from the collection tank onwards the pipes are broken, on the right the 4 official teachers of whom two are paid by the government school with on the left side the headmaster Banaf Jude Kongyuy and the two (female) teachers are paid (less salary) by the PTA (Parents teachers association).

Islamic School Kingomen.

Islamic Primary School of Kingomen is the only non governmental school that Bifae Education assists. It is in the center of the village but much poorer than the government school. It does not receive any funds from the national authorities because of their Islamic character although most of the Burorow people are moslims and all christian children from the village are welcome on the school too. IPS is in the Bifae Program since the start of the program in 2005. A medical post, sporting garment, a new class room, new benches, the renovation the headmaster’s office, posters and some books for teachers, as well as (in 2014) a new cupboard with locks to ensue safe keeping of the books were provided for, besides the individual scholarships. On the moment the school has 92 pupils from class one to six as well as 27 pupils for the nursery school. IPS Kingomen is the only Bifae schools with a nursery where pupils go from the age of 2. This part of the school is much deprived of school materials.

The priorities for the coming year for this school would be books for both teachers and children. For the latter Bifae Education will investigate a close cooperation with Knowledge for Children that offers a schoolbooks program in which the costs for books spread in 3 years will be covered with 80 till 60 % annually. Besides the school would need plastering the inner side of class rooms and have educative materials for the nursery school. For the long run the school has enough space on the plot to build a new class room in order to be able to split up class 3 and 4 that are now together within 1 classroom. However that will be a costly affair.

For out of the six teachers under the guidance of headmaster Mrs. Lovely (second from right) of IPS Kingomen, young girl in school uniform before the school building and some pupils during lunch.

Mbuluf Government School.

In Mbuluf a small rural community, not yet electrified, between Shsong and Kingomen there was only a Catholic School. As these schools ask more money than Government schools and a lot of children from deprived families did not get any education, as from 2014 a Government primary school has started. It is now situated in somebody privats house. As from late 2015 a new school on the already purchased plot will be build.

The government has asked Mr. Eugene (member of Bifae Education Board and before headmaster of Tabah School) to be the headmaster of the new school and undertake the task of pioneering again, as he successfully did it in Tabah School. For now there are 3 teachers and about 45 pupils but after the new school will be build there are expected to be much more pupils. The Board of Bifae Education decided to add the Mbuluf school as from 2015/ 2016. Five scholarships will be granted as from that year. Book for both teachers and pupils are necessary. Other priorities will be set after the new school building will be realised.

Mbuluf primary school in a privat house for the time being. On the background the staff and headmaster Mr. Eugene Lensimo.

Beside the schools mentioned above, Bifae has also supported GS Shisong primary school between the years 2005 and 2012. They received a first aid box and some books and materials, the foundation of one of the classrooms was repaired and two children were supported with a scholarship from class 1 untill they graduated from class 6.