Parents are the boss in the community school

Elias (15) rushes to class. He is in the seventh grade. 90 students are packed together in the dark classroom. In the absence of textbooks, they copy all the subject content into their notebook. They can only dream of a copier. At school, there is no electricity and no running water.
 
Super motivated
‘The importance of agriculture', teacher Deric writes with chalk on the blackboard. Before he starts the theory, he has his students narrate: "Who works on the field at home?" Almost all the fingers go up.
 
Elias sits on the edge of his seat to make sure he does not miss anything. He is the primus of the class. A mathematical genius. He wants to become a doctor. "I make the utmost efforts," he says. "I have to because as an orphan I will be completely on my own later.”

Parents boss
School director David Sitali consults the parent committee in his office. The parents have set up this school themselves: “Surely our children also have the right to education? There is too little space in private and state schools, and they are too expensive.”
 
In the community school, the children do not need to wear proper shoes and a uniform is not compulsory. “Some even come to school on slippers. So, what!" laughs the director. “I prefer to see those young people in the classroom rather than hanging out in the street.”
 
The school fee is only 5 euros per trimester. And the teachers? They work as volunteers, they don't get a fixed salary. With a bit of luck, there is just enough in the school cashbox to pay them a small fee, around 15 euros a month. A teacher in a state school earns ten times as much.