Scheduled for September 1, 2024, the start of construction work on the Médina Fall high school and the Hersent CEM, and the rehabilitation of the Djibril Diaw CEM is still not effective, "despite all our efforts. The education authorities are struggling to reassure," according to the populations of the Médina Fall neighborhood and representatives of the Hersent and Djibril Diaw CEMs.

They hosted a press briefing on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, to discuss the "extremely difficult situation facing students and teaching staff." They recalled that "in 2020, following a community forum, we drew up a memorandum in which we recorded the problems facing the local education system. This document was submitted to the education authority, which planned the construction of a modern high school in Médina Fall, a CEM in the Hersent district, and the rehabilitation of the Djibril Diaw CEM, which was in an advanced state of disrepair. The ministry held meetings with the academy inspectorate and conducted field visits to the sites (soil study, site delimitation, cadastral survey). The start of work was scheduled for September 1, 2024."

The project is funded by the AFD, as part of the Support for the Development of Middle and Secondary Education in Senegal (ADEM). Today, the situation in these establishments is alarming.

The Médina Fall CEM, which has 2,548 students, was transformed into a long-cycle high school with a glaring deficit of 24 classrooms for 39 teaching classes. Overcrowded numbers (80 to 98 students per class in the first cycle); six 6th grade classes, six 5th grade classes, six 4th grade classes, five 3rd grade classes, hence the need to separate the high school from the CEM. Not to mention the lack of toilets for teaching staff, dilapidated room doors and windows, a temporary shelter to be reabsorbed, an overloaded administrative block, a lack of garbage bins or garbage collection points, despite the request of SONAGED.

At the Hersent CEM, with a student body of 695, part of the racetrack was allocated to the community to build the school. It is a temporary school with two sites loaned by the Kaba Sall school. Local residents point out that these two loaned rooms do not meet the standards in terms of surface area. When it was created in 2017, the Hersent community received nothing in terms of equipment, apart from the creation decree; the tables and benches are made by the students' parents. Despite this, the CEM achieves good results.

With 1,100 students, the Djibril Diaw CEM in Grand-Thiès has 13 physical classrooms, one of which is non-functional, three classrooms in average condition, 10 rooms with a risk of ceiling collapse, an average of 80 students per class, toilets in poor condition, in addition to an administrative block that exists only in name. And despite these extremely difficult conditions, the CEM achieves good results every year.

Through this press briefing, the population is alerting the new educational authorities, so that all arrangements are made for the start of work.