Lotogou High School Computer Classroom Project

Lotogou high school with its 1603 students (2020-2021) is the main school complex in the Savannah region, a region that with an average annual per capita income of about 350 USD is the poorest and least developed in the country.

Project origins

Goal number 4 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), introduced with the UN 2030 Agenda, "promote quality, inclusive and equal education and ensure lifelong learning opportunities for all", aims to ensure by 2030 a completely free primary and secondary education and a level of education, equal and of quality for all children, young people and adults, in particular the most marginalized and vulnerable.

Great progress has been made regarding access to education for boys and girls, especially in primary school, but unfortunately, access to education does not always mean quality education, just as it does not always guarantee that children finish their years. primary school. There is still a lack of literacy in 103 million young people worldwide, of which 60% are female. Furthermore, in at least 1 in 4 countries, more than 50% of children fail to acquire basic mathematical knowledge by the end of primary school. While, in one out of three countries, this acquisition is not achieved even by the end of lower secondary school.

The significant inequality of opportunities between OECD countries and developing countries, in which almost all of the 100 million school-age children without access to education reside, often adds to the internal imbalance in the same countries where in addition to further discrimination based on gender and economic possibilities, there is also a disparity of opportunities, linked to territoriality, between urban and rural areas. In this context, access to the use of innovative technologies as well as being a fundamental element for the quality of the training provided is often an additional discriminating factor.

Project Description

Lotogou high school with its 1603 students (2020-2021) is the main school complex in the Savannah region, a region that with an average annual per capita income of about 350 USD is the poorest and least developed in the country. This reality, like the various schools in the area, does not have any type of tool or service related to the teaching of computer science.

The "Dante Morresi" project, dedicated to the memory of the founder of the "if ..." Humanitarian Association, provides for the conversion of the disused school library into a computer room equipped with 30 computers, a printer and a photocopier with the general objective to foster the social, economic and cultural development of the local rural community and in particular of its students.

The specific objective of the intervention translates into providing within the training course of each student of the schools involved and the local community itself, through specific training courses, the possibility of developing basic skills in the use of IT tools.

The expansion and modification of the old present structure, based on the principles of development cooperation, took place only using local labor and through the use of sustainable materials such as CEB bricks.

The new service, which is in line with the National Government Development Plan 2018-2022 (PND), as well as the close synergistic collaboration in strategic-operational terms with the teaching staff of the structure, avails itself of the support of the "Ministry of Primary Education , Secondary, Technical and Artisan "which, thanks to the intermediation of the local partner DassiFem, will provide a government volunteer, with specific skills, to manage the project during the first 24 months with the aim of ensuring its sustainability and proper appropriation by of the beneficiaries.

Expected and reached results

Thanks to the involvement and generous support of various donors, in particular Round Table 40 Lugano, on 09.12.2020, in the presence of the various institutional and traditional authorities, the national mass media, students and teaching staff, together with the lively participation of the entire local and neighboring community, the official inauguration ceremony of the new Liceo Lotogou computer room service was held.

The success of the new reality, which has already become a point of reference at the local level, aims to create a sustainable and reproducible structural, organizational, management and teaching model to achieve impact results on a large scale.

The great current challenge, which will require the cooperation of all the actors involved in the project and in particular a rigorous monitoring action by the association itself and an optimal management operated by the responsible government volunteer, will be to guarantee the sustainability and correct appropriation of the beneficiaries at the end of the planned 24-month accompaniment path.