Photos: Community unites in Senegal’s Dakar to clean dilapidated school

What the report says

Students, teachers, residents and environmental volunteers joined a cleanup effort at Medina Gounass Elementary School in a working-class suburb of Dakar, Senegal, ahead of the 2026-27 academic year. According to Al Jazeera’s photo report, the community swept classrooms, cleared drains and removed plastic and household waste from the school on Saturday, as preparations continued for reopening the following week.

The effort focused on making the campus safer and cleaner before classes resume, while also drawing attention to broader problems affecting public schools in Dakar and elsewhere in Senegal. The report says the area, like many outer districts of the capital, faces poor waste collection, blocked drainage and overcrowded classrooms, with these conditions often becoming worse during the rainy season.

Organisers said the cleanup was intended both to help the school reopen in better condition and to encourage students and local residents to take shared responsibility for the environment and public spaces. The article places the scene in a wider context of under-resourced public education, where community groups and parent associations often step in to support school facilities and teachers.

Al Jazeera’s report did not present the cleanup as a formal government initiative, but rather as a local response to longstanding infrastructure and sanitation challenges. It also reflects the continuing importance many families place on education despite difficult learning conditions.