Volunteers look to revive early childhood education in east Portland community
IN A bid to ensure that early childhood education is provided to children living in a remote community in eastern Portland, a group of volunteers are trying to rehabilitate the 70-year-old Windsor Forest Basic School.
The group, including Carlene ‘Peggy’ Campbell and popular entertainer Louie Culture, is in a race against time to rehabilitate the basic school, which was closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to at least meet the minimum standard set by the Early Childhood Commission (ECC).
“It is really a challenge, but we have to get it right, as these children are totally dependent on us pulling this off. It is an uphill task, but with collaborative effort and prayers, we will overcome,” said Campbell, who is president of the management committee at Windsor Forest Basic School.
Since the closure of the school in 2020, due to the pandemic and compounded by the presence of termite, bat, and rat infestation, the education of the children the school serves was negatively impacted. This resulted in some of the children being sent to schools located in areas that are miles away, leading to a reliance on taxis and incurring extra costs to parents who were already barely able to afford any additional expenses.
“Some children are not attending school due to the high cost of attending schools outside of the community, which is beyond what some parents can afford. The communities of Windsor Forest, Hartford, and Commodore are served by this school. The last known enrolment at the school was about 30 children. Through donations of cash and labour from concerned individuals, we have managed to commence with the rehabilitation,” she added.
According to Campbell, the members of the management committee formed in July 2023 were elected by the volunteer membership of Windsor Basic School Renovations Project to ensure transparency and accountability in seeking to attract donations and to adequately meet the standards governing early childhood education.
It is against that background that the committee, along with parents and other community residents, is seeking help to assist with the rehabilitation and restoration of the school building so it can be ready by September 2024 to not only provide critical formal early education to a vulnerable group of children, but to also reduce absenteeism by providing a school with proximity to children of the communities listed above and to reduce the financial burden on the parents who historically rank within the lowest socio-economic levels of society.
So far, the group has managed to carry out fogging of the school building to rid the structure of pests and they have also removed the entire roofing, which was rotted due to the prolonged closure.