Azezo Demaza Schools

About 10,500 students attend five elementary schools, a junior high and a senior high school in Azezo. In addition, about 100 children attend the only kindergarten in the town. There is also a boarding school (St. Raphael) for 120 visually impaired students. This boarding school is run by a catholic charitable organization.

The classrooms in each school are over crowded, and the average number of students per classroom is 80 to 140. Several of the classrooms have no chairs to sit or table to write on. Often students sit on wooden logs or bring rugs to sit on the floor. The physical states of most of the buildings are generally poor. The roofs, the walls, the doors and the windows have many holes, and are unsafe to be in especially in windy and rainy days. In addition, the bare minimum infrastructures such as toilet, playing fields, libraries, sporting materials, tea-rooms, etc. are lacking for the most part. For instance, most of the schools have no library, and if there is one, it is a collection of few 30 to 50 years old books.

The schools operate in a two shift system - mornings and afternoons. This is essential to accommodate most of the students which other wise would have been excluded from attendance. However, this results in reduced learning times and teacher-student interactions. The high school in Azezo ended at grade ten. Every year, few students are qualified to go past grade ten. These college-bound students in grades eleven and twelve must attend the college preparatory school in the city of Gondar at Fasiledes high school. There are several students trekking a distance of about 15 miles (24 km) daily. Most of them need assistance in transportation.

These schools, even if they sound and look typical in Ethiopia, are perhaps more towards the bottom end of the pit in terms of material resources. Despite this, the spirit of students for learning, the courage of the teachers and the optimism of the community about the future are all uplifting and contagious.

The hopes, aspirations and dreams of the students are embodied in education. They are aware that the only ticket to a better future is education. Families place much stock in dreams and the future appears brighter for those kids that can spend each day in school than those who are unable to attend. However, in a country where the windows of opportunity are very narrow, their schools are poorly preparing them for the skills and tools necessary to compete for what ever available spots in the higher learning institutes. For instance, opportunities to join teacher’s training institutes, colleges of nursing and universities have become a distant dream for several students. A number of bright kids often end up leaving school to support their poor families long before they complete high school. The cost of school supplies and transportation alone make education a difficult undertaking for several families.