Education sector gets a boost from UNICEF, France

Central African Republic's battered education sector received a boost on Wednesday as the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and France announced aid in money and supplies to the nation. UNICEF's education programme officer in the CAR, Sophie Ndanguere, said the agency had started to distribute stationery to primary school pupils and teachers in the northern province of Nana Grebizi. She said that until 14 October 59 schools, with a total of 10,390 pupils and 146 teachers, would be supplied with stationery such as pens, notebooks and chalk. She said another 213 schools in northwestern province of Ouham, with 30,752 students, would also be provided the same supplies. Both provinces were among the worst affected by the six-month rebellion that ended on 15 March when Francois Bozize overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse. The rebellion forced thousands of pupils and teachers to flee. Doors and windows were ripped off school buildings and furniture was stolen. The fighting also disrupted the school calendar, forcing government to readjust the current school calendar to end in November, instead of July. In an effort to revive the educational system in the war-affected north, UNICEF, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, returned teachers and pupils to their regions in June. In addition, in early September, UNICEF received stationery for 97,000 pupils. Ndanguere said only schools that had resumed classes would benefit from the donation. UNICEF's distribution comes just weeks after the UN World Food Programme began its food distribution to primary schools in the same provinces. Further support for the education sector came from France on Wednesday when it signed a grant agreement with the government for 400 million francs CFA (US $660,000) to the University of Bangui, the only university in the country. State-owned Television Centrafricaine reported that the money would help revamp the university's Rural Development Institute, the Faculty of Sciences, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages, as well as the management and technology institutes. The university also suffered from neglect during the six years of political and military upheaval that started in 1996. With a student population of 7,000, the university also lacks stationery and vehicles. Students' scholarships and the salaries of lecturers were not paid, until recently, giving rise to repeated demonstrations.