Dukem No.

1 Elementary School
Dukem No. 1 Elementary School is found in an area called Kebele 1. The school is one of several elementary schools in Debre Zeit (Bishoftu) town. Dukem Elementary was established in 1998 and supports students who are very poor and teaches them for free. Children from grades 1 to 8 attend the school in a shift system where half the children attend in the morning and half attend in the afternoon. Children often walk for up to an hour from outlying villages in order to attend. The school compound is open, leafy and tree-filled.

At a glance:
Pupils Teachers Classrooms Class size Library facility Clean water supply Toilets Electricity Computers Current resourcing needs 2370 pupils 51 teachers 20 classrooms 38 pupils/class Yes N/A 10 Yes 1 for staff use A clean water supply More classrooms Library books Computer and printing facilities

The school day

Children attend for four hours a day and study a variety of subjects. At this early age, most lessons are in Amharic, the official language of the Ethiopian government. Children also study Oromiya, the local language of this region. Children study many of the same subjects as in Western schools, such as Maths, Science, History and Geography. However, their History lessons focus much more on African and, in particular, Ethiopian history. English is an increasingly important subject as children get towards the end of elementary school; when they reach secondary school, all lessons will be in English and those with poor English skills will struggle to keep up. Unfortunately, with class sizes of up to sixty pupils, there is little chance for individual support and many children find English a difficult language to master.

Every morning, children take part in a flag ceremony, where the Ethiopian flag and the regional flag (in this case, the Oromiya flag) are raised and children line up to sing the national anthem. Children take it in turns to be the ones responsible for raising the flag. Lessons generally last for an hour and there is a short break midway through the day. Some children are able to buy snacks such as ice lollies, donuts known as bombolinos, and lentil-filled pastries called sambusas, which are the Ethiopian version of the Indian samosa!

Dukem No.1 Elementary School

Classrooms
Class sizes are currently large with sometimes over 40 pupils in one class. This makes pupil-centred learning difficult to manage and means that many pupils do not get the attention they need. As the school continues to grow, more classrooms are a high priority.

Water Supply
Dukem Elementary currently does not have a clean water supply. Children often walk for miles to reach school every day and clean water is essential to keep them from becoming dehydrated. A clean water supply can also help to prevent the spread of illnesses and improve attendance.

Library Books
The school has a library but many of the books are out of date and inappropriate for the age of the children. A selection of well chosen non-fiction and fiction titles in both Amharic and English would greatly improve the library.

Computer facilities
The school has at present only one computer for administrative use. In our increasingly computer-dependent world, a lack of access to computers at a young age is a serious disadvantage for the children of Dukem and is a situation the school would like to remedy.

Recent projects and future needs

The school has a number of basic needs in order to provide a good quality of education for its children. The community is ready and willing to help improve this situation, given the necessary finances to fund the elements that the people themselves cannot afford. A long term plan is being put into place by the community to help improve the overall situation.