EDUCATION-COTE D’IVOIRE: Teachers in Transit

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Etienne S. Lahoua

ABIDJAN, Apr 6 1998 (IPS) - Martial B. (32) works at a secondary school here and, like many other teachers in this West African nation, he dreams of migrating northwards so as to get away from the frustration of working for the state.

Martial, a qualified teacher, could have started out with a gross monthly salary of about 500 U.S. dollars, which is roughly what his colleagues hired before October 1991 were paid when they began working.

However, a decree issued in that month lowered the salaries of new entrants into the profession, so when he began teaching in October 1992, he earned half of what his seniors received.

Since then, teachers like Martial have fought in vain, under the leadership of the Union of Secondary School Teachers of Cote d’Ivoire (SYNESCI), to have the October 1991 decree repealed. Now he is fed up. “I do not believe in the trade union struggle any more,” he tells IPS. “What I am concerned with right now is leaving Cote d’Ivoire and trying my luck in Europe.”

“I’ve lost six years for nothing,” adds Martial, who has been trekking from one embassy to the next over the past two months in the hope of obtaining a visa. “I should have left Cote d’Ivoire a long time ago like my friends who are in France, the United States and Canada.”

Quite a few teachers dream of leaving the West African nation and emulating the many others who have reportedly succeeded in finding jobs abroad. “They give the impression of working with their minds on something else,” says a grammar school official, who sees this as the reason for declining education standards.

There are no official figures available on the exodus, but the effects on the ground are evident. “The university is losing its lecturers,” says Haubouot Asseypot, rector of the University of Cocody, one of five universities in Cote d’Ivoire. “Fewer and fewer people are entering higher education,” he said at a seminar held early this year on reforming cooperation between French and Ivoirian universities.

According to the National Research and Higher Education Union (SYNARES), there is only one lecturer for every 150 students at the University of Cocody.

“Ivoirian schools are going through a series of repeated crises since 1991 because of the unsatisfactory wage conditions,” said Asseypot.

However, it’s not just wages that Cote d’Ivoire’s teachers are dissatisfied about, but also “the deterioration of (their) working conditions and the shortage of teaching materials which we are trying, as much as possible, to correct,” says a Higher Education Ministry official.

He did not elaborate on the corrective measures taken so far, but whatever efforts the government has made seem insignificant at the primary level.

In Alepe department, some 60 kms southeast of here, the primary education inspector has had to close some classrooms because of the shortage of teachers. In most of the department’s schools, classrooms are either dilapidated or lack basic equipment like tables, benches, desks and blackboards.

In Sokorodougou, which is 700 km northwest of Abidjan, the equipment is present in some cases, but there is no accomodation for the teachers. In some schools, pupils sit on the ground during classes, while in others, the children are packed four or five to a bench made for two.

According to the National Statistics Institute, Cote d’Ivoire’s population grows by 4.8 percent annually but the school system’s accomodation capacity and infrastructure have increased by a mere 0.5 a year.

“This difference in figures reflects not only the fact that the party in power since 1960 hasn’t been planning any education policy, but also the repeated crises that have been shaking Cote d’Ivoire’s schools,” said an opposition parliamentarian.

Despite the general dissatisfaction, some teachers are not considering migration, especially those who have managed to find ways to supplement their earnings. Physics teacher Zoma Bi, for example, owns a private telephone booth and a bar. “You can no longer live off teaching,” he says. “You have to learn to make ends meet.

M. Kipre, a university instructor, and his wife, who teaches in a primary school, own a discotheque so migration is not an option for them.

They argue that it is no use running from your country because of problems and that you should love your profession as well as the difficulties that come with it.