There is something universal about a classroom. At least there used to be. Regardless of what country you are in, you can expect to find some kind of blackboard, chalk dust swirling lazily in the morning light and wooden benches as seats.

What is particularly different here is that classes start and finish much earlier. This is to accommodate teachers who need to supplement their income or grow crops so that they can provide for their families. Childhood itself also finishes early, as children often must start work from a very young age to help contribute to the family income.

Lilli from THE BOUNDLESS EDIT spoke at length with Louise du Plessis, the English Program Coordinator, and Mimi Coultas, The Head of Project Development, at SEED Headquarters in Taolagnar to get a clearer idea of what life in the rural Anosy region is like for the next generation.

So here in the Anosy region the education system is in dire straits at the moment. In the last 5 years we have had an 82% cut in funding for education. Which essentially means that the infrastructure is imploding

50% of children have not been to primary school

Only 35% of people can read and write. Fifty per cent of children have not been to primary school. Of the ones that do go to primary school, a third don’t continue afterwards because, if they fail their exam twice, they are not allowed to carry on in public school and they have to find funding to go to a private school. Hence the high levels of illiteracy which has obvious knock-on effects for unemployment at a late stage.

- Louise du Plessis English Program Coordinator

Q. What can help this situation?

Part of the reason that we work in this area on school buildings is because of that infrastructure problem. For every 1900 students we have one latrine.

And just a few latrines can make a massive difference. But then, alongside any facilities that we build, we also run hygiene and educational games and workshops to get kids excited about using latrines and excited about hand washing. They then go home and talk to their families about what they have learnt.

- Mimi Coultas The Head of Project Development  

Only 26% of schools have access to clean water

We also have a massive issue with students not having access to benches to sit on. So a lot of our projects involve making benches. So we are trying to address some of these issues. A lot of the children in these rural areas – their childhood ends much earlier than what we would hope.

Part of the issue is that children are seen as a commodity, in that they are able to bring in an income for the family. So a lot of the children are working basically from a very, very young age. Or sometimes they look after their younger siblings while their parents work.

You will also find that a lot of the teachers have to supplement their income, so they tend to only do half a day at school. The second half of the day they are trying to earn enough money or grow crops so that they have food to feed their family.

We try and address those issues by helping train the teachers, because they don't get any training – or they get very little training – from the government. For some school there are just no textbooks. No desks, no textbooks, but there is a blackboard, there's some chalk – and sometimes there is no chalk. So Azafady has tried to address some of these issues by building up to 20 new schools and we are hoping to get funding for books to fill those schools with whatever is needed to improve education. Because a school is not made by a building, it is made by the expertise and the skill of the teachers.

Q. What impact has your work had on your life?

This year I will have been teaching for 21 years and my work with this organisation has been the most life-changing. To anyone who comes to Madagascar, or works with Azafady, you will really feel like there is a place here for you and that you can make a difference every hour. Just giving a one hour English lesson to a person and then hearing them speak back to you the next day and using the vocabulary that you have just taught them – I don’t think there is much that could more rewarding than that moment.

- Louise du Plessis English Program Coordinator