On the occasion of the national teaching day celebrated on April 30 each year, the national union of teachers of Congo (SYECO), Beni section, paints a gloomy picture of the education sector in this northern region -Kivu, characterized in particular by difficult working conditions for teachers.
SYECO/Beni reports that over the past ten years approximately 65 teachers have been killed by the ADF, schools have been burned and an incalculable number of students have been forced to move following multiple attacks by ADF rebels.
“We have outsourced schools, children struggling to cover school fees because of the poverty of their parents who can no longer go to their fields,” says SYECO/Beni advisor Jérémie Kasereka Kinyangwa.
He talks about a situation that negatively impacts the quality of education in the region.
This teacher launches a pathetic appeal to the Government to pacify the area:
“The level of students has dropped significantly. Imagine, we have 222 days in high school. But we only go up to 130 because of rebel activism. If nothing is done, within five to ten years we will have already buried education here in our region.”
