Exams at last for 90,000 students left in limbo in rebel territory

After waiting more than three years to sit key exams because of Cote d’Ivoire’s unrelenting civil war, more than 90,000 school students left in limbo in rebel-held territory could be able to take the tests as soon as this month. In a statement issued after Wednesday’s weekly cabinet meeting, the West African country’s interim government announced a new plan to restore schooling in the northern half of Cote d’Ivoire, which has been split in two since a failed coup in September 2002. Teachers, judges, nurses and a host of other civil servants left jobs in the north after the start of the civil war, heading for the government-held south where public administration and civil service pay have continued uninterrupted. Since the conflict began, schools in the north - home to some six million people - have been operating with the help of volunteer teachers, while exams have been scrapped because they needed the approval of the education ministry. “The proposed plan will enable the school year to begin on 1 March 2006 and to organise exams for the 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 school years according to a schedule running from 23 February to 29 March 2006,” the cabinet statement said. In Cote d’Ivoire the school year generally begins in October with final exams set for June. In 2004, exams for the 2003/2004 school session for 72,243 northern pupils were set for 10 November but had to be cancelled at the last minute when fighting flared up. By 2005, the number of students from the north who had paid fees to sit the exams had swollen to 93,845, but Education Minister Michel Amani N’Guessan said at the time that it was too dangerous to send teachers to rebel territory to supervise the tests. Of the total who have paid out the fees, 8,776 hope to sit their final secondary school leaving exam, the “baccalaureat,” which is needed to advance to further study. Another 23,715 have applied to sit for the BEPC leaving certificate after four years of secondary school, and 60,140 for the CEPE exam certifying the end of the primary school cycle. The fate of school children in northern Cote d’Ivoire has been a sticking point in peace talks, with the New Forces rebel movement slamming the government of President Laurent Gbagbo for failing to allow exams to take place. Rebels have called this “cultural genocide.” A new interim government was put in place in December, however, headed by Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny. He has been tasked by the international community with overseeing a UN peace blueprint for the country.