Sister Communities of San Ramón, Nicaragua builds four more classrooms in rural schools

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Dec. 22, 2016 - PRLog -- Sister Communities of San Ramón, Nicaragua (SCSRN), a Durham based non-profit, is excited to announce that they will be building four new classrooms

These new classrooms will be built in the communities of El Roblar and El Jinete, in in the municipality of San Ramón, Nicaragua. This brings the tally of classrooms built by SCSRN, to 28 classrooms over 14 years.

The classrooms in El Jinete will be used for K-6, in order to meet the need for space in this growing community. This year, 140 children enrolled at the beginning of the school year, and thirty were turned away because of lack of space.

"We are very happy to have this construction project come to our community, because we want all of our children to get the chance to study," says Leocadio Sanchez, community leader in El Jinete.

In El Roblar, the new construction is part of SCSRN's "High School for All" campaign, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education's secondary rural school project. Many children in rural communities do not attend high school because of the high cost of daily transportation to the nearest high school, and because teenagers are expected to work to help support their families. The Ministry of Education has begun high school classes on the weekends in some rural primary schools to ensure that all children have access to secondary education.

High school classes in El Roblar began three years ago, each year opening up a new grade (in Nicaragua high school lasts five years).  This school year, the El Roblar primary school has been filled to capacity with just first-, second-, and third-year students. As this school year comes to a close, teachers and administrators have been worried about how they were going to accommodate the rising fourth-year students. The construction of these two classrooms comes at just the right time.

In the words of one administrator: "Parents in rural communities are seeing the importance of high school education more and more, and they want to send their kids to school, which is great, but we were very worried about not having enough space for them."

About the Sister Communities of San Ramón, Nicaragua

SCSRN has been supporting community-identified projects in education, health, sanitation, and environment in the rural municipality* of San Ramón, Nicaragua for over 20 years.  All construction projects are completed by the community – SCSRN covers the cost of materials and specialized labor, and the community contributes the unspecialized labor. To learn more visit: https://san-ramon.org/

*Nicaraguan municipalities are comparable to counties in the United States. San Ramón has a population of approximately 45,000 people, and currently 78 rural schools.