Educate or perish in the Central Sahel...*

"The vision of some of the armed groups is to break our education system ... we must put an end to this vicious circle" These were the words of Stanislas Ouaro, Minister of National Education and Promotion of National Languages of Burkina Faso, during the conclusion of the Virtual Dialogue on the Educational Crisis in the Central Sahel (held on 12 October 2020)!

While deliberate attacks on schools in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have taken place in worrying numbers, the worst education crisis seen in the Sahel cannot be just explained by the attacks from armed groups. In a region where 50% of the population is under the age of 15, these attacks come on top of other threats that hold the sword of Damocles on the entire education system in these three countries. 

Without Education, the future of the region as a whole is at stake today!

Odette - a young Malian student committed to continue advocating for access to quality education for all Malians. She summed up the threats to the Malian and Sahelian education system in general, identifying the growing insecurity, the impacts of climate change - with more and more floods impacting school infrastructures, or pandemics, particularly that of COVID 19, are all new vulnerabilities, which add to an already extremely fragile system!

Do we need to remind the reality before the COVID 19 crisis ?  More than 8 million children between the age of 6 and 14 did not go to school in these 3 countries, i.e. more than 1 in 2 children in this age group, compromising the future of millions of children. Added to this are the deliberate attacks on schools: between 2015 and 2019 more than 430 attacks were recorded, leading to the closure of more than 4,000 schools (including more than 2,400 still today in Burkina Faso alone), leaving more than 16,000 teachers and hundreds of thousands of children unable to continue their lessons! 

More recently, the floods, and above all the COVID 19 crisis, have dealt a further blow to a system that was already out of breath: more than 13 million children have been out of classrooms!

While Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are preparing to reopen their classrooms after COVID 19’ closure, many children risk never finding their way back to school: either because they were forcibly married, because they had to support their families by starting to work, or worse, because they were recruited into armed groups!

The crisis in the education sector goes far beyond simply reopening classrooms!

It is complex, multifaceted and a challenge deeply rooted challenge over a long period of time, beyond the existing political and security crisis that the countries of the Central Sahel are going through. But today, the governments in power have no choice but to restore their education systems that are in a state of distress, or they risk seeing them collapse, and government to collapse with them!

The need for a holistic approach!

The way out of the crisis will either be holistic or it will not be: The education issues in the Sahel touches issues of investment, peace, gender and many others.... It must also respond to urgent needs, while being integrated into multi-year strategic plan!

In a context of growing insecurity, maintaining education in high-risk areas has become an absolute necessity. Making schools "zones of peace", as envisioned by the Declaration on Safety in Schools and Universities, is the moral and social responsible of Governments. It is the necessary step towards the restoration of the rule of law.

But protecting schools from military use during armed conflict and restoring a damaged education system involves a huge effort, often beyond the reach of the budgets of Sahelian countries. While the Education Cannot Wait Global Fund has already invested more than USD 62 million in these countries in recent years, it estimates that an additional USD 94 million would be needed to restore the long-forgotten education systems!

These funds, which attempt to cover certain structural investments, but will also have to be accompanied by funding to meet emergency needs. If this "humanitarian" funding will not necessary, allow the reopening of classrooms closed by bullets and guns! They will allow children to stay in touch, trough the provision of school kits, solar radios and tablets. These are all necessary, but often materials to keep children connected to a system are inaccessible, excluded them against their will!

But this funding will also have to support the most vulnerable people. Because they are those who are most at risk. But if they are not protected... they will also represent a fertile breeding ground for certain armed groups. Girls are exposed to all forms of sexual violence, even forced marriage! But once out of the classroom, boys also become targets of armed groups.... There has been an increase in forced recruitment since the beginning of 2020!

You don't need to go to the remote areas of the Sahel to see the advanced state of decay of some classrooms - where they exist. Classrooms in villages nearby Sikasso (considered to be Mali's agricultural reserve) are a representation of the lack of investment that has plagued too many rural areas for decades. The recent floods have reminded us that even in capital cities like Niamey in Niger, access to education is not resilient to the impact of climate change!

In this context, agreeing that the crisis in the Sahel is affecting civilians, a vast majority of which are children it seems to us that prioritizing the needs of children must be an absolute priority! Protecting children from the different forms of violence to which they are exposed is more than necessary. But guaranteeing them their rights, especially that of being educated, seems to be the only way to re-establish the rule of law.

But this wish will not come true without a strong political will, with commitments that will be translated into concrete action on the ground. The return of a state that is too often absent from its obligations seems in the end to be the sine qua none condition for offering a future to the Sahelian populations.

Failing this, and as President Joseph Ki Zerbo used to say, States simply risk "perishing" and therefore disappearing!

?

* Title of the Book by Joseph Ki- Zerbo - Burkinabé historian and politician.

** This blog has been co-written with Eric Hazard, Panafrican Campaign and Policy Director - Save the Children International. This blog is the result of our personal reflections and cannot reflect those of Save the Children.