Essau School - North Bank Project

MARCH 2006

OCTOBER 2005

DECEMBER 2007

GETS's future involvement currently hangs in the balance after discovering that the head was not operating in accordance with the charity's policy and was operating independently, having set up a bank account and contacting sponsors asking them to donate directly to him or the new account.

The visitor's book fails to record donations and no record is kept of donations made or how they are spent.

Following a meeting with the vice chair of the schools community committee it was agreed that the head had made errors and the charity has sent a document containing what needs to be rectified, we are currently awaiting the committee and head's decision.

The school at Essau is the hardest school to monitor being on the north bank of the river, it has not responded as well as the other schools to the 2007 training initiative nor the work of the Education Manager, numbers recruited to the school are still high, enrolment fees are charged but so far unrecorded - one class had over 50 children when monitored during the 1st term of the 2007/8 academic year.

We are in close contact with John and Kay Skingsley, the founders of the school who fully accept that unless there are significant administrative changes, GETS will be forced to withdraw its support of the Nursery. Significant changes have been made to GETS Gambia administration and the same transparency must exist at each of the supported projects.

MARCH 2006

Julie's full report will follow shortly, but in brief money donated by Sainsbury's and raised by Steve and Jenny Maw has been used to fund a splendid 6 toilet block 3 for boys and men - 3 for girls and ladies.

The block is operational but should be completed before the rainy season starts in June.

OCTOBER 2005

The school in Essau was built to house the children of the African Christian school, which was founded by the Reverend Jackson in 1996.

The funds for the school building, toilet block and watchman's hut were raised, during 2000 and 2001, in the UK by John, Kay, Derek and Jennifer Skingsley, who registered their charity (Friends of Gambian Educational Projects) in 2001.

Funds to pay for an electricity generator were given to the charity by its local Rotary club but sadly the installation was unsafe and because some of the funds were diverted to other uses, the generator purchased was too small and has subsequently become lost.

John made a temporary fix to the installation but asked GTS to supervise the safe re-wiring by a competent electrician. It was at this time that the charity felt that it could no longer support the Reverend Jackson but wished to continue to support the Essau school, and so asked GTS to take over the school administration with co-operation of a village committee.

GTS now takes FOGEP funds each month to Essau to pay the teachers and the acting head Malick has obtained food funding from the UN so that the children can have midday meal. The funds for the cooking utensils were supplied by FOGEP.

The toilet block has suffered damage since it was built and is now in need of urgent repair. Funding has been sourced for this project which hopefully will be completed in early 2006. Unfortunately the money for a water connection which FOGEP supplied disappeared and now NAWEC has an embargo on new connections so water has to be carried, by the staff, to the school from a tap on the main Senegal road.

Funding for the school from FOGEP is available until sometime during 2006 - GETS is committed to keeping the school open and will implement the new curriculum in Essau as soon as funds are available for teacher training and the necessary teaching resources.

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