I realized that in all the excitement over the library, we have almost completely forgotten to mention that our cours privés (private classes) program is also up and running. We have French classes for the 7th-9th grade running here at Maourou Diarra, and, even more exciting, Math and Science for the 9th graders at Saint Pierre, the other middle school in our cluster.
When I first started envisioning this project, I was hesitant about the idea of including these classes because it felt a lot like SAT prep and it seemed like this couldn't possibly be one of the key educational needs of the neighborhood. But, as we've discussed earlier on this blog, the DEF exams our students take after the 9th grade are about as critical as they come. A good score the first time around means a government paid education at a good high school. Multiple failures most likely means an education that ends in 9th grade. Many parents pay for expensive cours privés to better prepare their kids for these tests, but such classes are out of reach for the vast majority of Niamakoro families.
The Niamakoro Education Project's cours privés offer free, quality instruction to interested students to help them catch up on concepts they haven't yet grasped and prepare them for some of the most important sections of the DEF. On Saturday I stopped by Saint Pierre to get these pictures of math class. Our math teacher, Fidel, is an incredibly bright soon-to-be first year medical student. He is great with the students and it is clear they already respect him. We believe that improved DEF scores will be one tangible measure of the NEP's impact.
Don't forget, you have the opportunity to support this mission by donating. Just $75 pays for an entire month of these classes. Visit http://www.niamakoro-education.org/donate for more information!
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