Practical Training College

At the border of the village of Sangha, which lies in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage, the practical training college for eight-hundred students provides the area with a new agricultural and construction education and training facility. The school, which is still under construction, consists of various ensembles of classrooms, hangar workshops, teacher houses, and technical service buildings surrounded by experimental farmland.

The school is part of our strategy of circular development for local initiatives that respond to local requirements. The community itself invests manpower or money, so that they become owners of the project. The cycle of education is the key. Boys and girls alike attend a primary school and learn a profession at the practical training college so that they can contribute to the local economy.

Education adapted to the problems and the conditions relevant to the region is a step towards a self-sustainable future. As part of their training, the current masonry and electrical engineering students, of which one third are women, will build the third and last cluster of school, purposed for agricultural education. In cooperation with the Wageningen University & Research an innovative curriculum was developed to increase the production and the quality of food despite poor local farming conditions. The school will also run a tree and plant nursery to help in the cross-country battle against deforestation and provide plants for the Green Desert projects which show remarkable results.

The architecture of the school is in line with local building traditions. All construction elements such as (bearing) walls, floors and barrel vaults and dome shaped roofs are made of earth taken from the surrounding area itself. It is being processed on-site by mobile machines that produce hydraulically compressed earth blocks, thereby heavily reducing the costs of transport and source material. These HCEB stones resist heavy rainfall and provide an optimal cooling climate.