ABIDJAN, 12. May 2011 – Mere end en måned efter at skolerne officielt blev genåbnet i den centrale, den nordlige og det vestlige region af Elfenbenskysten er 85 procent af områdets børn tilbage i skole. Det viser er rapport fra UNICEF og Red Barnet. Rapporten fortæller også at skolerne lider af mangel på stole, borde og toiletter. Det skriver UNICEF på sit netsted.
“It’s encouraging to see schoolchildren going back to class in the CNO area (den centrale, den nordlige og det vestlige region , red.) but our work does not stop here,” said Côte d’Ivoire’s Education Minister, Kandia Camara. “We must tackle the problem of 83,000 children who have not returned to school yet, and ensure that every child indeed goes back and finishes the school year.”
The report outlines several challenges to providing quality education to children: A third of teachers are still absent; 80 per cent of the public schools evaluated in the CNO region don’t have enough wooden desks and chairs for their pupils, and about 75 per cent of schools don’t have latrines.
“Many families were forced to flee their homes during the conflict and lost their means to earn an income, while other families hosted displaced people, overstretching their resources,” said Hervé Ludovic de Lys, UNICEF Designated Representative in Côte d’Ivoire.
“Parents are now faced with the difficult choice of sending their children to school or relying on them to work to provide income to the family — cultivating fields, hauling bricks, or helping in the markets. With the delay, the school year will overlap the harvest season,” said Ludovic de Lys.
“Education is a right of all children and is essential to their development. One million children were already out of school before the crisis, and of those who had the chance to go to school, many were unable to complete even their basic education,” said Guy Cave, Country Director for Save the Children in Côte d’Ivoire. “Hundreds of thousands of additional children were then forced out of school for several months.”
