The ravages of Mali™s civil conflict, which paralysed education for almost two years, have disrupted the start of a new school year in the country™s north, where damaged schools, staff shortages and insecurity have set back learning. Schools reopened across Mali (pop. 14.5 million) in October. The government and the UN Children™s Fund (Unicef) launched a back-to-school campaign to help 500,000 children and 9,000 teachers restart schooling. The government has also set up a scheme to pay civil servants to return to the country™s north.
Northern Mali was overrun by Islamist militants and separatist rebels after the government was overthrown in Bamako (the country™s capital) in March 2012. The Islamists, who imposed a harsh form of Islamic law, were dislodged by French forces in January. However, security is yet to fully return to the region.
œDespite the measures taken by the government, many teachers have not yet resumed duty in Timbuktu, says Mody Abdoulaye Ciss©, Timbuktu™s education director. According to him, some teachers consider the US$500 (Rs.30,500) government incentive to return to the north, too small and feel it is still unsafe to go back to the region. œIt™s not only a question of money. It™s a matter of life too. Everybody knows that the conflict is not over and there are suicide attackers everywhere. The government is putting the lives of teachers and pupils in danger by opening schools under such conditions. That is why I have decided not to return for the moment, says Sekou Sala Kone, a teacher in Timbuktu currently living in Bamako.
The conflict and the food crisis that hit the Sahel region in 2011-2012 kept some 800,000 Malian children out of school for two years, according to the education department. Even before the conflict, learning levels in Mali were already low, with an estimated 1.2 million school-age children, most of them girls, not attending school. œThe major problem is that too many children have lost two years of schooling. This can have a carry-on impact of discouraging children from returning to school, says David Gressly, the UN deputy representative in Mali and the humanitarian coordinator.
Sixty-seven percent of schools in northern Mali were ransacked during the crisis. The militants occupied around a quarter of the schools in the region. A smaller percentage of school buildings was damaged or destroyed, according to Unicef. Gao schools were looted the most. The nine-month Islamist occupation wrecked public services, with hospitals, bank services, water and electricity only just resuming in most areas.

(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)