With just two weeks to go to the scheduled start of the 2023/24 education calendar, students in the look far from returning to their classes even after going two years without school amidst the ongoing war in East, Democratic Republic of Congo.
M23 rebels have taken control of Rutshuru, Masisi and Nyiragongo territories in North Kivu Province denying the children of the said areas chance to get an education for the past two years.
According to the civil society in Masisi, one of the territories occupied by the M23 rebels, classes have been left damaged following rebel attacks in the area.
“In Masisi, we record clashes every day and this causes the displacement of the population who had already returned since the ceasefire. Among these displaced, school children and students. We are a few days away from the start of the school year, we have no communication from the Minister of Education” civil society spokesperson Télesphore Mitondeke says.
“The children who remained in the areas under the control of the rebellion are going to study how?” Mitondeke wondered.
Meanwhile, it is also highly unlikely even for children who had been placed in displacement camps to start the education calendar year owing to limited of finances to acquire the necessary items.
“We are here, the days go by and we don’t know what to do. It is also difficult for us to find what to eat, do you think we can find money to pay for studies and even buy classic objects?” said a displaced person from Rugari, currently in Rutshuru, Goma since December, 2022.
Sources revealed that government was yet to provide a roadmap of how it had intended to run the 2023/24 education calendar year in the East with teachers who have so far only met military governor and had not received a concrete response.
