Teachers in Mayotte return to school amid uncertainty after the cyclone

Five weeks after the passage of Cyclone Chido and a week before the students, teachers in Mayotte return to school on Monday in a stormy context, between establishments still not restored and at least one still occupied by victims.

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The return of students, initially scheduled for January 13 and postponed several times, will take place “from January 27”, according to the Ministry of Education.

The arrangements for welcoming students will be “adapted to each school”

Despite this postponement, general uncertainty still reigns in Mayotte, where many establishments are not yet able to accommodate the approximately 117,000 students enrolled in the youngest department in France. In a press release, the Ministry of National Education explained on Monday that the arrangements for welcoming students would be “adapted to each school”.

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To “guarantee educational continuity”, “student rotation systems in classes” will be put in place and courses will be “broadcast on the Mayotte-La 1ère channel”, adds the press release. Students will benefit from “donations of school supplies” and will be able to use “psychological support”, continues the ministry.

Monday morning, around ten teachers gathered under the leadership of unions in front of the Mayotte rectorate in Mamoudzou, the capital, to protest against the terms of allocation of a post-Chido bonus and the conditions of the reopening of schools.

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“We are being forced to return to school without knowing the conditions, particularly access to water and electricity,” Yamina Ali, a primary school teacher in Mamoudzou, told AFP, assuring that her colleagues were unable to enter the establishment on Monday, the gate being non-functional without electricity.

Operation to evacuate victims, until now housed in a high school

Another point of tension, the Younoussa-Bamana high school in Mamoudzou, where cyclone victims are still housed. Groups of residents entered on Friday to try to dislodge them.

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On Monday, an operation to evacuate these victims, migrants from the African Great Lakes region, was underway at the high school. The AFP, which was not authorized to enter, saw hundreds of people surrounded by the police in the courtyard of the establishment.

Asked by AFP, the prefecture did not provide figures on the victims still accommodated in educational establishments.

Last week, the rector of the Mayotte academy, Jacques Mikulovic, affirmed on France Culture that 39 schools (out of the 221 “administrative” schools, some sharing premises) were unable to operate. Five secondary schools out of 33 were “significantly impacted” by the cyclone.

E. Borne in Mayotte the week of the probable return of students

The start of the school year on the 27th, “that's the objective of this week. We are going to take stock of the educational materials, call the students to make a precise inventory, we also saw this need for psychological support”, said he declared Monday at the school campus of Bandrélé (south-east) where he had come to attend the start of the school year, quoted by Mayotte-La 1ère.

The Minister of Education, Elisabeth Borne, whose trip to the territory at the end of December with Prime Minister François Bayrou had been stormy, planned to go to Mayotte the week of January 27 to discuss with the educational community, parents and the students.

According to teachers interviewed by AFP, the question of the number of students they will have at the start of the school year also arises.

The “school life” service is taking stock of the children who are still in the territory, many having gone to Reunion or France to continue their education”, indicated a teacher wishing to remain anonymous in front of the school of Enlightenment in Kaweni.