IRIN Focus on integrating Liberian children in education

Cote d’Ivoire’s authorities hope to integrate some 20,000 Liberian children into the education system in the next school year, which starts in October, but first a number of hurdles need to be surmounted, participants in a workshop held to discuss the idea noted. Examining the technical and socio-psychological obstacles facing the proposed project and coming up with ways to ensure its success was the focus of the meeting, held on 7-9 May in the Ivorian capital, Yamoussoukro, 241 km north of Abidjan. Many Liberians sought refuge in Cote d’Ivoire during the 1990s as civil war tore their country apart. The end of the war made voluntary repatriations possible, and these began in 1997, organised by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). However, about 120,000 Liberians opted to remain in Cote d’Ivoire. They include the children whose proposed integration into schools prompted last week’s meeting of officials of the Ivorian ministries of education, and defence and civil protection, Liberian and other education specialists, and representatives of UN agencies and international NGOs. Most of the Liberians live in an area in southwestern Cote d’Ivoire that encompasses the districts of Danane, Guiglo, Tabou and Toulepleu, all near the Liberian border. Unlike in Guinea and Sierra Leone, the vast majority live within local communities. Only about 7,500 live in the Nicla Camp, the only refugee camp in Cote d’Ivoire. For the past 10 years, UNHCR and other agencies have been paying for the refugee children to go to schools administered by the Adventist Relief Aid Agency (ADRA) and run according to the Liberian education system. However since the Liberians’ situation is no longer an “emergency”, UNHCR proposed that the Ivorian government take over their schooling. Financial help needed The Ivorian state agreed in principle, but it sees the financial implications as onerous, according to participants in the meeting. A study by the Bureau national d’etudes techniques et developpement (BNETD - National Bureau for Technical Studies and Development) estimates the project’s cost at the equivalent of US $16.2 million. This amount includes the cost of putting the children through six years of primary school, building 450 classrooms, dining halls and sanitation facilities, the construction of about 250 housing units for teachers, and the purchase of teaching equipment. It also covers the cost of recruiting and training teachers and paying them monthly salaries equivalent to about US $127. “Cote d’Ivoire cannot face this situation alone,” Education Minister Michel Amani N’Guessan said at the meeting’s opening ceremony. The call for financial aid was reiterated in the conference’s final document. “It is important for UNHCR and the international community to make a formal commitment to support, as long as necessary, the hard-pressed Ivorian government,” the document stated. For starters, infrastructure is lacking in all four schools districts. Danane, for example, is short of 63 teachers for its 15,000 Ivorian students. It also lacks equipment, money and infrastructure, according to its superintendent of schools, Tra Bi Youbo. The district, which has more than 15,000 Ivorian students, is slated to integrate 6,000 young Liberians under the new project. UN agencies promise to help The UN Children’s Fund has appealed for some US $60,000 as its contribution to the project, UNICEF’s Carol Jaensen told IRIN. The agency has also agreed to provide teaching equipment and supplies. The World Food Programme has promised to donate food for school canteens, while UNHCR has contracted the German development agency, GTZ, to build 90 classrooms starting early June. However, the financial cost of the project is not the only challenge facing the Ivorian authorities and their partners. Its social and psychological dimensions also need to be tackled. Misgivings about integration According to participants in the Yamoussoukro meeting, some of the Liberian parents resent the idea of integration because they feel their children would lose their culture, and might not be willing to go back to their country and contribute to rebuilding it once real peace returns to Liberia. Many parents believe they are “transiting” through Cote d’Ivoire, either on their way back to Liberia or en route for Europe and the United States, participants said. Dealing with this issue is a prerequisite for success, according to a Liberian school superintendent, Morris S. Turay. “Before you can integrate the children, you have to integrate the parents,” he said. In fact, the word “integration” in the draft project agreement between the government and its partners provoked animated discussion at the Yamoussoukro meeting. According to the document, integration means “an offer to educate the refugees in the same conditions as Ivorian children”. However, as one participant said, refugees tagged political and legal connotations to the term, which some see as synonymous with naturalisation or citizenship. The challenge is, therefore, to make sure the refugees understand that the project’s goal is not to turn the children into Ivorian citizens but to provide an education, participants noted. The mobility of the refugees also threatens the ability of children to attend school for any significant amount of time. Refugee families sometimes move from one area to the next for a variety of reasons, ranging from a feeling of insecurity to conflict with the host community - usually over land. Integration into the Ivorian school system also means that they will have to attend classes throughout the day whereas refugee schools - like those in Liberia - do not open in the afternoons. This allowed children to help their parents grow food. Should they have to attend afternoon as well as morning sessions, families’ food security could be affected, participants said. Like their parents, some children see their stay as temporary and feel little need to be part of an education system that uses French as the language of instruction whereas Liberia’s official language is English. Teachers who went on a fact-finding mission in the project area in April reported that some of the young Liberian refugees were “prone to violence”, which they attributed to the years of war they had endured. The teachers feared that the children’s attitude could have a negative effect in schools. They also feared that the children could prove difficult to discipline. Many children “have seen bullets and dead bodies”, and fear nothing, one Liberian parent said. Another potential barrier to the integration programme is the perception that the refugee children would be unable to find jobs since the labour market would give priority to Ivorians. Yet another factor is age. Many of the Liberians are too old for the corresponding classes in the Ivorian system. Participants said the authorities could either raise the age limit for each class – and the overall primary school age limit of 15 years - or enrol the children in vocational programmes. However, there is only one vocational school in the four districts. Other questions such as how to grade the students, which texts to use and how to establish equivalencies with the Liberian system, appeared to pose less of a problem. Host communities On the other hand, the impact of the project on host communities was seen as an issue that deserved careful attention. For the past two years, a series of clashes between indigenes and foreigners, mostly over land, have occurred in the area. Usually the conflicts are between locals and migrants, but there have already been incidents between indigenes and refugees. Such conflicts could recur unless the locals’ needs and demands are taken into account, participants warned. They noted that the views of both the indigenes and the Liberians had not been sought. Recommendations coming out of the meeting included that the participating parties identify those families interested in the integration project and provide “psychological preparation for Ivorian and Liberian children”. The conference also recommended that the assigned teachers be “voluntary, experienced and interested”. “Before any decision is taken, a team comprising psychiatrists, sociologists and population experts needs to conduct a study to determine the project’s feasibility,” the meeting recommended. “What would be useful would be a very solid documentation on all aspects of the issue,” Jaensen said. Asked whether she thought the target date would be met, she replied: “No! I don’t think we are going to be ready to move in October.”