Teachers, pupils to be transported to schools, minister says

Teachers and pupils who were displaced during six months of fighting in the Central African Republic (CAR) will from Wednesday be offered transport back to their schools, Education Minister Bevarah Lala has said. Speaking on Monday, Lala said that the government had set aside seven trucks, with support from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), to transport teachers and pupils back to their regions. "We will suspend their [teachers'] salaries if they refuse to go," Lala said in an interview with the government-run Radio Centrafrique, adding that the transportation would last 10 days. Educational activities in the CAR have been paralysed since October 2002, when teachers began an indefinite strike to demand payment of 32 months of salary arrears. In April 2003, the teachers' unions reached an agreement to resume work on 2 May, and this was followed by the payment of April salaries. The teachers' strike coincided with fighting between troops loyal to the current CAR leader Francois Bozize and government forces of then president Ange-Felix Patasse, which lasted from October 2002 to March 2003. Together with thousands of people in the north of the country, teachers and pupils fled the region. Bozize ousted Patasse in a coup on 15 March. His administration has promised to pay salaries monthly and all salary arrears when the economic situation improves. Due to the fighting and the teachers' strike, the education ministry has had to review the school calendar. A director at the ministry, Jonas Guezewane told IRIN on Monday that the country had been divided into two zones. In regions where neither the strike nor the fighting affected schooling, the current school year will end on 15 July, and the next will begin in October. In regions where schooling was interrupted, a new school year started on 2 May and will continue until November. The next school year will begin in mid-December. "It is impossible to harmonise school activities before the 2004-2005 school year," Guezewane said.