The handover of this wonderful new school, St Francis Xavier Nursery and Primary Catholic School, took place on 29th May 2025 and the community turned out in force to celebrate.

In recent years, almost 200 children were trying to learn in an old dilapidated church hall with no roof, or in classes held under the shade of trees.  Inevitably this meant that classes often had to be abandoned due to torrential rain, intense sunshine or high winds. Save the Children has estimated that around 60% of children in this region dropped out of school at an early age because of a lack of a safe and sanitary learning environment and they were forced to go for child labour instead.  This was a problem that we felt we must address.

The new school has six purpose built classrooms complete with sufficient benches for all the children to sit comfortably.  Teachers’ tables and chairs have been provided and there is a Head Teacher’s office and also a new deep pit latrine with hand washing facilities.  In addition, the school was given tools and seeds to start a school garden which will grow produce to help provide income to the PTA and ensure the school’s sustainability.  Mankon has welcomed a high number of IDPs into its community and it is anticipated that the enrolment at this school will increase significantly.  Already the enrolment has exceeded 250 and we expect it will rise further.  We look forward to hearing that drop out rates have fallen and that children attending this school pass their exams and move on to secondary school.