Education Programme

Outside a make-shift classroom, Agnès proudly holds her satchel and shares her aspiration to become a teacher. “I want to retain my knowledge and earn a steady income” says Agnès.  This is a high aspiration for a 14 year old who, three years ago, dropped out of school to help her mother look after her siblings. Agnès is now part of the Cibitoke Education Programme run by Concern.  The programme consists of 4 catch-up classes, which provide one year’s intensive schooling for formal primary education dropouts, with an aim to reintegrate them back into the formal school system.  The project has been running for almost 2 years and is credited with many successes including the reintegration of 118 children into formal schooling in the last year.  Equally, there is also much to learn in order for the project to have an impact in the long term.   
    
The protracted civil war that ravaged Burundi since 1993 virtually paralysed the education system which was already failing before the conflict began.  The quantity and quality of teachers has been dramatically reduced; school buildings have been destroyed, and thousands of pupils were displaced and are now suffering psychological effects of what they have experienced.  Sustained peace in Burundi will require not only the repair and reform of the education system but also a major expansion of capacity.  The need for resources is paramount, along with staff training, improved buildings, and new equipment and books. 

Concern’s Education Policy aim is to sustainably improve the livelihoods of extremely poor women, men and children by stimulating their demand for, and increasing access to quality basic education .  Concern is aware that providing education, even if it is free, does not automatically mean that children will have access to it.  There are many reasons why children may not have the chance to go to school as they are often the most vulnerable in society.  In Burundi schooling is not yet compulsory and often parental or community attitude towards education dictates whether children attend or not.  Agnès says that she wants to get married at 19 rather than 16, and her mother agrees.  However, Agnès is very aware of the obstacles that will restrict her choices and she seems resigned to the fact that she will get married young: “even though I am doing well at school my step-father is very traditional will stop me going to formal school next year so I can help my mother look after the children”.

Concern carries out education awareness activities to stem the flow of drop-outs and to stimulate the demand for education.  Concern follow-up agents, aware of Agnès’ concerns, will now visit her family.  The agents are conscious of how sensitive they have to be and that they could potentially make the situation worse by intervening in family matters.  “We live in the community and often know the family already”, says Dieu-donne, a Concern follow-up agent. “Humour is very important in Burundian culture and it is a way to begin informal discussion with people”.  He feels that “the methods used are effective because it means that we do not seem superior”.  This methodology has been successful on three levels; firstly follow-up agents encourage catch up class drop outs to return to school.  Secondly, they encourage formal school drop-outs to return to school.  Thirdly because the methods used are participatory and culturally sensitive the community attitude towards education changes.  ‘Because people now see the benefit of education in Cibitoke, their extended family members in other regions have asked us to come and work with them’, says Dieu-donne.

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