Bezawit Pre-Primary & Primary School

Bezawit is a rural village in the outskirts of Bahir Dar and the project is a partnership between Partners, the Bezawit community/Bahir Dar City Education Department and the Bahir Dar University. The existing school did not have water, latrines or even a play ground. The terrible classroom conditions and lack of basic services has resulted in a declining student population, high student absenteeism, loss of learning times because of the need to spread fresh cow dung on the floor to keep the dust down, and poor sanitation due to open defecation. The old school has now been torn down and all of the previous conditions have been rectified with the opening of a new school, complete with latrines and a library.

The new school (2 classrooms, a library, science lab, admin block with a teacher resource centre, IT room and offices, and separate latrines for boys and girls) was opened in September 2019. It was built in a new location on a 2 hectare piece of land donated by the community.

The school will upgrade its level from Grade 4 to Grade 6, and will increase its enrolment capacity from the present 370 to 800 in the next year. Parents have started digging holes around the property to plant trees, which will serve as a fence. Baseline learning assessments were conducted in June 2019, and teachers began training workshops in Sept 2019.