ABC 123

I am a teacher. I value school and it’s importance not only in teaching subjects but also in shaping the lives of young children. I believe in the value of the teachers. So I looked into the education system in Chad, both with a few statistics and anecdotal reports from my family, and here is what I found. From the Unicef site, between 2008-2012 the primary school survival rate to the last primary grade according to administrative data is 49.3%. According to the data, 22% of males attend secondary school, while only 11.6% of females during the same 5 year period.

School strike!

Starting on the morning of Wednesday November 5, all public teachers went on strike, because they have not yet received their salary from the government. All private school teachers decided to do a 3-day solidarity strike to show that they support the public school teachers. Private school teachers’ salaries come from fees paid by the students at the start of the year as well as church and mosque funding support.

Getting teacher’s in the first place

There is little problem getting teachers for private schools, as they get paid regularly and have a bit more security. This means that teaching in public schools is much less desired than teaching in a private school. Teachers in public schools are more likely to not show up for class, be late or need to reschedule their lessons. (This may be because they are also teaching at private schools which gets priority.) Three weeks into the year, at the public school of my cousin, they were still missing teachers for certain subjects.

Getting students to come in the first place

As a teacher at CENTRAM, I did not at first understand why students who were eager to learn did not regularly come to class. I have since come to the realization that often home activities take priority over class. For example: someone in the family is sick, you are sick, your have guests, you are asked to wash clothes, you must make dinner, you are in the bush, you are grieving the loss of someone at ‘la place mortière’, you had to take care of children etc. While in Canada, if you sign up (and pay) for extra classes (like students at CENTRAM) then you would show up, and while students do want to show up, there are many other things happening in their lives that can sometimes take priority.

Importance of school

School is important, and while there is still less than 50% of youth aged 15-24 who can read and write simple sentences, literacy is improving in Chad and that is positive.

In 1993- 17.35%

In 2000- 37.56%

In 2004- 41.67%

In 2010- 47.05%

(Taken from indexmundi.com)

As Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."