Combining infrastructure, education and local mobilization in Guinea

Linking SCHOOL infrastructure, pedagogy and local mobilization IN Guinea, Pellel bantan

In the village of Pellel Bantan, in the commune of Timbi Touni, northern Guinea, some school-aged children had to wait two years to enroll in first grade (CP) due to a lack of space. Tahirou Bah, a former student of this school and now a PhD in computer science in Paris, launched a project with the Pellel Bantan Diaspora Association in Europe to build three new electrified classrooms within the school built by his parents, bringing the total to six usable classrooms. With the aim of sustainably improving school conditions, a sanitation component was also included by rehabilitating four latrine blocks within the school. Thanks to this project, which won an award in the Autumn 2023 session, 53 new first-grade students were welcomed for the 2025-2026 school year, with more girls than boys for the very first time since the initial construction.

To learn more about the project, we interviewed Tahirou Bah, who shared his experience with us, along with his approach and vision for co-developing international development initiatives with a local partner.

«"As you can see from the name of the association, it clearly says Pellel Bantan Diaspora in Europe, So it's an association that brings together people from this village, which is part of the municipality of Timbi Touni. It's about 400 km from Conakry, in a very isolated village that has a school, which I had the privilege of attending. The Pellel Bantan primary school was built in the 1980s by our parents using their own funds, Then they made it available to the state, so it became a public school. It's thanks to this school that I was able to study. At some point, this school fell into disrepair and not sufficient in terms of infrastructure to be able to meet the needs ; The Guinean population has increased since the 1990s, but the school has remained unchanged with only three classrooms. This school allowed me to access professional opportunities that have brought me to where I am today. The idea is to to give the same chance to the children of future generations.

The primary objective is to’increase accommodation capacity of the school because, with only 3 classrooms, they were forced to recruit every other year, which meant that at a certain point, some school-aged children couldn't attend because there wasn't enough space. The other objective is to’study in the best conditions. That's why we chose to invest in providing the school with lighting, ceilings, and also some innovative teaching methods, because we wanted strengthen the capacity of teachers. We said to ourselves: "It's not normal that a child here, or in some countries, can have access to digital technology from a young age, and that in this locality, this is not the case.".

Another important point is that you have a very high school dropout rate. When you look at the number of people starting primary school compared to those leaving it, you see a huge dropout rate. Those who are most affected, unfortunately, are young girls, because of everything you can imagine: early marriage, etc. That's also one of the goals of this project: to go raising awareness among our parents to say: "Girls must also be given the chance to study." Because Education is not just a men's issue. »

According to Tahirou, These educational objectives, which are targeted by the project, can only be achieved by acting in a complementary manner on the infrastructural dimension and the pedagogical dimension.

«"Because education must be seen as a whole that begins with the family. Families need to be aware of the importance of education. My parents didn't have the opportunity to study. And yet, my father quickly understood that it was something very important. He guided us at home, telling us: "Do your homework, because it's a means by which one can escape poverty. »

Seeing the school dropout rate in this village, we realize that people aren't leaving just because the building isn't there; they're also leaving because perhaps the quality of teaching is not up to standard. So we took the time, looking back at our own journey, to say to ourselves: "For this to work, we really need to Activate all the levers, otherwise the building will lean to one side and the intended objective will never be achieved.’"That's why we held quite a few meetings, either in..." mosques, either with women's groups, or with the youth, so that all these wonderful people, each with what they can contribute, can look in the same direction. From my point of view, it is impossible to achieve the goal of quality education without taking all of this into account. set of parameters. »

The issue of latrines of this school, approached through the intimate narrative of Tahirou, This illustrates this multidimensional approach well. where the school building needs to be combined with other services.

«When I was at that school between 1998 and 2000, we didn’t have toilets. When we needed to relieve ourselves, we had to go out into nature. That’s something that left a mark on me. The first thing we did in 2016 was to…” to build latrines, because In order for children to be able to study, they need to be healthy.. When you're sick because of poor hygiene, you can't study. But the association found that the latrines we had built in 2016 weren't in the expected condition. So we demolished them, and when I arrived, I saw that the children were defecating all over the toilets, so I spoke with the teachers. They explained to me that the The water point within the establishment is far away It's about 50 meters, so when the children go into the cabins, there's no water. So we have ran a pipe so that each cabin would be equipped with taps.

Then, we talked about the interview. Every Saturday morning, they have a General cleaning: teachers and students do all the cleaning work, including collecting dead leaves, cleaning classrooms and latrines.. That's also part of raising children.»

These new hygiene practices are among the many notable changes made possible by the project. And what about the long-term changes to come?

«"The effect we observed is..." the increase in the number of students recruited this year compared to previous years; we had 53 new members. On the first day of school, I was at the school with the sub-prefect and the mayor. There were also lots of parents who had come to ask questions. more girls registered than boys. I don't know if it's related to the awareness message we sent out. Now, These figures will need to be observed over time., to see if it's not a catch-up effect because last year it wasn't possible to enroll everyone who could go to school! And then we'll see too regarding the results of the national exam allowing one to obtain the first-year school certificate. We'll see if in the next 6 years "We will have a higher success rate than we were used to in previous years."»

Beyond the project's results, Tahirou expressed having learned best practices from his experience at Pellel Bantan, which could potentially be applied to other similar intervention contexts. These lessons confirm a vision of international solidarity that he has developed through his experiences supporting Guinean diaspora associations within FORIM and the Coordination of Guinean Associations in France (CAGF).

Tahirou examines the methods that guarantee the success of a development initiative. The question of the authorities' involvement in a project comes up very frequently during the planning and assessment phases. Here's what he thinks about it:

«"It is essential to involve local authorities, if only for legal reasons:" Education is the responsibility of the municipality. For a project to be solid and viable, it is absolutely necessary that the request comes from the beneficiaries. A project conceived by someone 6,000 km away because they believe they can identify what people need is, in my opinion, a project doomed to failure. Involving the authorities is precisely what guarantees the project's success. It also shows them that there are other ways to do things. […] We must also raising awareness among these local actors Because in Guinea, decentralization is recent. Municipalities have many powers on paper, but in reality, they don't necessarily have the resources to respond to all the requests. This project is also an opportunity to do this skills transfer that we were able to acquire, so that the municipality could understand how to organize itself for better meet the needs of its community. »

In addition to the involvement of the authorities, the presence on site of a trusted partner, trained and aware of these issues of solidarity and international financing, is a major factor in the success of a project:

«For me, it is impossible to implement an international solidarity project for an association like ours, which has no local employees, without there being a genuine coordination between the actors. For the project to succeed, the local stakeholders must first be involved. feel concerned and not feel that only their name is being mentioned. The first thing to do is to succeed in getting some regular communication channels, to establish a certain trust between actors. The money that is transferred, we need to be certain that the partners on the ground use it wisely, hence the’'importance of traceability'. So we supported these local young people who formed an official association registered with the prefecture; they have a bank account with at least two signatories. The money is only released when expenses are known and approved beforehand by all stakeholders. […] Trust is also about training : we have some expectations and requirements of other donors, to produce a report that is acceptable from an accounting and technical standpoint. And they don't necessarily always share this perspective. They were initially showed our constraints, so that they understand that when we ask questions, it's not to spy on them, but because it's a question that the landlord is going to ask us. Since 2016, we have been working with virtually the same actors The municipality, the local parents' association, the local youth association. So in all our projects, this is very well established, and in my opinion, the success of any international solidarity project rests on the fluidity, trust and very good coordination between actors. »

Once the authorities and partners are involved, the work doesn't stop. Coordination and monitoring throughout the project allow us to address and adapt to unforeseen events that arise.

«After only a few months of the project at Pellel Bantan, our contacts at the municipal level have changedThe mayor at the time, with whom we had arranged everything and signed the agreement, was replaced by the president of a special delegation. At that point, it was necessary to explain the whole project again, all the commitments what the municipality had done in terms of contribution, provision of staff for the civil party, implementation… Faced with this transition, we must have communicated well with the president of the special delegation, who also knows us and is part of the local community. We haven't There were no relationship difficulties because there was trust.They know that when you say something, you try to deliver on it, and you don't come with false promises. So, culturally, since we are originally from the area and that it was our parents who built the school, We know a little bit about what to do and what not to do. The municipality also financially honored the commitment made by the elders. From the outset, the municipality told us: "We will make things easier for you regarding the provision of wood, framing, doors, and everything else." As soon as they Given the commitment of their predecessors, they did it.. Now, the municipality faces a difficulty inherent to all small municipalities in Guinea: it has not many resources, So sometimes it's complicated.»

The Forum of International Solidarity Organizations from Migrant Backgrounds is a national platform that unites diaspora associations committed to international solidarity and co-development.

The Coordination of Guinean Associations in France is a network that brings together Guinean associations in France in order to strengthen their actions in support of the diaspora and the development of Guinea.

Tahirou relates a other Example of project adaptation. This time it concerns a change expressed directly by the beneficiaries, which could not be ignored in the...implementation, another symbol of coordination that takes local demand into account :

«"The initial idea was to create an additional building with computers so that the’computer science education so that it can be integrated into the school curriculum. When we started implementation, we held meetings with the municipality and the community. They told us: "This school was built 35 years ago and a new classroom has never been built. Therefore, even if you build two additional classrooms on top of the three existing ones, it will still be impossible to enroll students in certain years. Since primary school lasts six years in Guinea, each teaching group must have its own classroom.". They made us adapt the project saying: "we prefer that you put your all into the construction of 3 new rooms, That way, we have the guarantee that every year All our school-aged children will be eligible for recruitment.."We accepted that.", we adopted him And that's how it happened. […] The idea isn't not to impose our vision And our point of view to the beneficiaries is to Listen to them. They're the ones on the ground. »

In summary, the association's approach focuses on a multi-sectoral approach to education. Infrastructure is nothing without pedagogy and access to essential services (water, sanitation, and hygiene). Furthermore, achieving project results also depends on building a trusting multi-stakeholder partnership that communicates regularly to monitor progress and make adjustments as needed. As mentioned above, further improvements to the Pellel Bantan school are planned soon, including the addition of a computer room, a cafeteria, fencing, and a teachers' room. To be continued…