They also formed a committee to manage the school and ensure regular attendance. Schooling was completely free, with no hidden costs. Eliminating the long walk to school was a crucial 'girl-friendly' feature. So was recruiting young local women with diplomas and training them as paraprofessional teachers, called 'facilitators' to underscore that their role is to organize activities, provide materials and otherwise facilitate learning, but not to deliver knowledge. A child-centred approach to teaching, using games, songs and stories relevant to the children's daily lives, makes the schools cheerful, inviting places.
Classrooms are attractive, full of artwork, posters and colourful designs.
They use stones for counting, toothbrushes for painting, and so on. And although school hours are flexible enough to allow children to continue with farm and household chores, the syllabus is equivalent to a full primary school curriculum, covering Arabic, religious studies, arithmetic, social studies, science and art. By 1999, at least 200 more schools should be open. The initiative has also given rise to other development activities. In 1995, some 1,600 women took advantage of literacy classes offered in community school facilities.