1. Introduction

ESCUP provides support to communities in remote, inaccessible areas to construct temporary buildings made of local materials (mainly thatch and bamboo covering a wooden frame). This intervention, which also exists in the MoEYS Child Friendly School Activity Menu, provides an immediate, albeit temporary solution to the problem of school availability. These one-room, intermediate classroom structures are generally staffed by a Community Teacher and enable educational service provision within a very short period of time. This approach is vastly superior to cumbersome school construction projects, which usually take years to complete from the time of program start-up through environmental impact assessments, actual construction, and eventual registration with government, excluding the additional time required to staff such structures with state teachers. In combination with the provision of Community Teachers and community mobilization activities, ESCUP has found that support for ICRs can reach a large number of children in a very short period of time. After their establishment, ICRs generate a local culture of school attendance and eventually put these areas on the radar screen for more formalized school construction by Government or an international development bank. The construction of ICRs, therefore, plays a crucial role in jump starting an important process leading to expanded educational provision in remote areas.

2. Primary Objectives

• To increase access to basic education in remote and underserved areas of the country.
• To expedite the process of expanding the educational system in remote areas.

3. Target group

The provision of ICRs generally seeks to target very young children who have never had the benefit of studying in school. Usually, these children are too small to walk to the nearest school and so really have no opportunity to study. In general, ICRs provide access to Grade 1, 2, and 3 because these are the children who are most deprived of opportunities to learn in remote areas though it is possible for ICRs to serve older children through multi-grade teaching modalities.

4. Facilitators

Ideally, the construction of ICRs should be led by the Commune EFA Commission or the local community. Local leaders should cooperate with the nearest school or school cluster in order to receive a small grant of about $500 for the purchase of materials in order to build a temporary building. Communities must supply the labor for the construction. The Local Cluster School Committee should coordinate the allocation of a community teacher, if one is necessary, to teach at the school.

5. Information on Implementation

• During annual planning activities at the beginning of the school year, schools should identify the areas where there are many children with no access to a school.
• Following the identification of areas in need of ICRs, calculate budget needs based on a general formula of $500 per ICR (one room).
• Upon the release of grant funds, LCSCs should immediately provide the $500 grant to each CEFAC or local School Support Committee.
• CEFACs or SSCs should undertake local community mobilization to construct the ICR. They should also make announcements in the village that school services will be available from the beginning of the school year or the estimated time of building completion.

LCSCs should also coordinate with local communes the allocation of Community Teachers for each of the ICRs to be constructed.

6. Resources Needed

Resources and funding for this activity are provided through ESCUP's central budget (as opposed to the school/cluster grant).

• Labor costs
• Construction materials