COLOURED PAPER CHAINS from last Christmas still hang from the ceiling of a dusty classroom in the Groupement scolaire pour une education fondamentale et internationale (GSEFI), a multi-faith school in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR). The teacher™s attempt to raise some festive spirit did not save this little community. Schools officially reopened in Bangui in March, but children won™t be studying at GSEFI any time soon.
Apart from a hole in the outer wall just big enough to crawl through, the school buildings are largely undamaged by the fighting and insecurity of the past few months. But most of the pupils at GSEFI were Muslim and have probably fled Bangui, or dare not approach this no-man™s land between their enclave and the rest of the city. œThe anti-balaka (an anti-Muslim militia) wanted to destroy the place, a local guide told IRIN, œbut the Burundians (African Union troops) drove them back.
Many other CAR schools have been damaged or destroyed since the country descended into chaos after a rebel alliance seized power last year. A recent telephone survey of 355 schools contacted by the education cluster ” the coordinating body for education activities ” in CAR found 52 had been looted by armed groups in recent months, 26 occupied by armed groups, 24 struck by bullets and 15 set on fire. In some rural areas, entire villages have been burned and local schools, usually built of mud and sticks, were destroyed with them.
Education ministry official Kongbo Ouali says that on April 4, about 80 percent of schools countrywide have been reopened. But more than two-thirds of state schools and just over half the private schools contacted by the education cluster ” which includes staff from CAR™s ministry of education ” were still closed.
Insecurity is clearly a major reason why many schools remain closed, but the difference between the state and private sector suggests that pay arrears are also important: 32,000 public servants, including several thousand teachers at state schools, stopped receiving their salaries for several months and although these began to be paid again in March, thanks to support from donors, several months™ pay has been frozen.
œIf there wasn™t insecurity, children could go back to school. But there is another aspect: Teachers™ salary arrears must be paid, and there should be help for those teachers whose houses have been looted or burned, says education official Antoinette Redebale.
Unicef and other aid organisations helping the CAR education sector are concentrating in the short term on restarting education in areas where security is a major problem. Unicef says an estimated 23,000 children are attending a total of 115 temporary learning spaces, including 94 in Bangui, organised with its partners. The œtemporary learning space (known by its French acronym Etape) is basically a large tent, equipped with mats and blackboards but no desks or benches, where more than 100 children can attend a class.
(Excerpted and adapted from www.irinnews.org)