Schools reopen for first time in five months

Government schools in and around the Liberian capital Monrovia reopened on Monday for the first time in five months as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)launched a "Back to school" campaign which will eventually put 750,000 children into the classroom. The streets of Monrovia were full of children in school uniform for the first time since rebels launched an assault on the city in early June that forced all schools to close. Most of them were subsequently occupied by civilians displaced from their homes by the fighting. But since the signing of a peace agreement in August to end 14 years of civil war and the subsequent arrival of West African and then UN peacekeeping forces in Liberia, the situation in the capital has begun returning to normal and the classrooms have been vacated by their temporary occupants. The "Back to school" campaign was preceded by the distribution of UNICEF "School-in-a-box" kits containing blackboards, chalk, exercise books, pens, regstration sheets, and other teaching materials. UNICEF has also been conducting a series of brief training courses for teachers on how to use the kits. Launching the "Back to school" campaign in the small community of Kingsville, 30 km north of Monrovia, Gyude Bryant, the chairman (president) of Liberia’s new transitional government, said, “ We are concerned that the education of our children and young people offers a better prospect for a secure and stable Liberia”. Bryant said his virtually penniless administration, which is charged with guiding Liberia to elections in 2005, would provide US 100,000 to support the reopening of schools. He also announced the setting up of an education trust fund, to which international donors would be invited to contribute. UNICEF regional director for West and central Africa, Rima Salah, was in Liberia for the launch. She said in a statement: "We know that a child who goes to school is a child who doest not go war”. “A child who goes to school is a child who is protected against abuse and discrimination”, she added. Relief workers have estimated that up to 70 percent of the combatants in Liberia's civil war were children under the age of 18. The "Back to school" campagin was launched in six of Liberia's 15 counties, clustered around the capital: Bomi, Bong, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Montserrado and Grand Cape Mount. The deployment of 4,500 UN peacekeepers, the vanguard of a force that will eventually number 15,000, has provided a measure of security in most of these areas. But Salah stressed that, as soon as security conditions permitted, the “It is absolutely necessary, in the interest of children that we have access to the entire country in order to reach all affected communities with essential basic services. All Liberian children have the right to education”, Dr. Salah said. The campaign aims to eventually train 20,000 teachers and rehabilitate 3,700 schools across the country. Each school-in-a-box kit contains enough materials for 80 children. However, Liberian teachers, who have not been paid for 15 months, will have to wait a bit longer for their first pay cheque. Bryant said in a speech on Saturday that all civil servants should receive their salary for October shortly. The "Back to school" campaign aims to offer free compulsory primary education to every child in Liberia.