In the Central African Republic (CAR), students face many challenges. Yet, through collective action, parents and communities are succeeding in changing the desolate educational landscape.
In CAR, parents are rolling up their sleeves to save schools
Estella is a primary school teacher in the Herman district of Bouar, the main town in Nana-Mambéré, in the north-west of CAR. She is also General Secretary of the community’s Kundukwa committee (“work meeting” in Sango). This committee, made up of parents and community members, has a mandate to mobilise the community around the importance of education.
“I’m a teacher. I live across the street from the school. I see the difficulties of children and parents in my neighbourhood. There are a lot of abandoned and orphaned children. As a mother, I feel a duty to come and help,” says Estella.
CAR’s education sector is in dire straits after a decade of conflict and population movements. Fifty per cent of the population are under the age of 18, but 7 out of 10 children do not attend school regularly. Alongside insecurity, financial constraints on families are the primary cause of school dropouts, as parents lack the resources to pay for their children’s school supplies and uniforms. In total, some 1.2 million school-age children in CAR experience difficulties in accessing education.
In the provinces of Nana-Mambéré and Mambéré-Kadéi, committees have been set up for each of the 17 local schools with the support of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). This is part of a wider community engagement project funded by UNICEF and the German development bank KfW.
Estella is a primary school teacher in the Herman district of Bouar, the main town in Nana-Mambéré, in the north-west of CAR. She is also General Secretary of the community’s Kundukwa committee (“work meeting” in Sango). This committee, made up of parents and community members, has a mandate to mobilise the community around the importance of education.
“I’m a teacher. I live across the street from the school. I see the difficulties of children and parents in my neighbourhood. There are a lot of abandoned and orphaned children. As a mother, I feel a duty to come and help,” says Estella.
CAR’s education sector is in dire straits after a decade of conflict and population movements. Fifty per cent of the population are under the age of 18, but 7 out of 10 children do not attend school regularly. Alongside insecurity, financial constraints on families are the primary cause of school dropouts, as parents lack the resources to pay for their children’s school supplies and uniforms. In total, some 1.2 million school-age children in CAR experience difficulties in accessing education.
In the provinces of Nana-Mambéré and Mambéré-Kadéi, committees have been set up for each of the 17 local schools with the support of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). This is part of a wider community engagement project funded by UNICEF and the German development bank KfW.
Awareness-raising sessions
“At the start of the new school year, we do a lot of work to raise parents’ awareness of the need to enrol and then keep their children in school. Because, in general, during harvesting, mushroom-picking or winged termite season, parents pull their children out so they have more hands to help,” Estella continues.
As there is no source of drinking water near Estella’s school, the children used to walk long distances to fetch water for themselves and their families. Members of the Kundukwa committee have now provided water-filled jerry cans at the school so that children no longer have to fetch water and run the risk of accidents or dehydration on the road.
The committee also supplies necessities such as basic first aid kits and chalk for the teachers, and regularly cleans the school playground.
“There are huge and urgent problems that need to be addressed at the school. Take the canteen, for example. Before, the World Food Programme provided lunch for the children. But that’s no longer the case. When children don’t have a canteen, they don’t go to school. They go hungry,” laments Geneviève, the committee’s coordinator. “As a parent, you can’t just sit back and do nothing. We get involved for the wellbeing of the community, and especially that of the children.”
A context-sensitive approach
In the village of Labollé, 10km from Bouar, the Kundukwa committee has adapted its actions to fit the local context and the school’s needs. For example, committee members regularly go door-to-door in nine surrounding villages to raise parents’ awareness of the importance of good nutrition and good hygiene for children.
In CAR, some 7,800 teachers and teacher-parents (parents who work as teachers to support struggling schools) are also in need of humanitarian aid. Low salaries and difficult living conditions mean teachers aren’t drawn to the most remote areas. As a result, teachers are unevenly distributed across the country. In basic primary 1, there are on average 120 pupils for every tenured teacher. This ratio is even higher in rural areas, where there is a severe shortage of teachers.
Kundukwa committees are working to improve living conditions for teachers as well as students. “To speed up the principal’s installation in our village, we have built him an office house. This will enable him to do his work in good conditions before his permanent home is built,” explains Urbain Koka, a parent who is committed to ensuring that the school is “doing well”.
These examples show that, despite the challenges, communities in CAR are committed to transforming the educational landscape through their collective action. By mobilising local resources and working together, parents can ensure their children receive quality education. Local initiatives, supported by international organisations like NRC, demonstrate that solidarity and determination can overcome many obstacles, paving the way for a better future for children in CAR.
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