Pupils in rebel territory to sit delayed exams

The government of Cote d'Ivoire has sent officials to four towns in the rebel-held north of the country to prepare examinations for thousands of pupils living in rebel territory who were unable to sit their normal exams in June last year, Education Ministry officials said on Monday. Education Minister Michel Amani-N'guessan announced on state television at the weekend that the government would deploy a “minimal administration” to prepare the ground for about 46,000 children to sit exams in the rebel-held cities of Bouake, Korhogo, Odienne and Man. The exams, including the primary school leaving exam, the secondary school leaving exam and the all-important university-entrance exam, would be held between 29 January and 6 February, he added. The new school year, which began in the government-controlled south of Cote d'Ivoire last September, would officially start in the rebel-held north on 3 February, the minister said. Many schools in the north of Cote d'Ivoire have been closed since the country plunged into civil war in September 2002. Others have managed to keep going, but often without full staff. Thousands of teachers fled to the government-controlled south of the country shortly after the conflict began. Many ordinary citizens, concerned to see children continue their education, and even some gun-totting rebels took their place in front of the blackboard. But many northern schools were forced down completely and some became transformed into shelters for displaced people. According to the Education Ministry, only 250,000 of the 700,000 school pupils in northern Cote d'Ivoire were able to receive some kind of education over the last 15 months. The rebels, who recently agreed to rejoin a broad-based government of national reconciliation, which they abandoned in late September, said they were cooperating with the moves to hold exams and get normal classes started again. “We are taking the necessary measures so that the government’s minimal administation can do its work”, Soumano Dramane, the head of the rebels’ education department, told IRIN from Bouake by telephone. He said the government and the rebels had identified about 400 testing centres in the four northern cities where pupils would be allowed to sit exams. The World Bank, the main donor to education in Cote d'Ivoire, said on Monday it was happy about the government’s decision and that it stood ready to help relaunch education in the north. Under the terms of a French-brokered peace agreement, signed in January last year, the rebels have agreed in principle to disarm and allow the government to reestablish its administration in the north of Cote d'Ivoire. However, diplomatic sources say disarmament was unlikely to begin until the United Nations agreed to deploy a peacekeeping force to oversee the process. The Security Council is due to consider the matter later this month.