Coronavirus in Senegal: partial reopening of schools finally postponed indefinitely

Text by: RFI Follow

Last-minute turnaround in Senegal: the partial reopening of schools, scheduled for Tuesday morning, did not take place. The resumption was to concern only the pupils "in exam classes", CM2, 3e and Terminale. That represented some 550,000 students, out of a total of 3.5 million, but on Monday evening, the Ministry of Education announced a postponement sine die.

Publicity

With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac

Some students who had not been informed in time ended up with their school bags in front of closed doors on Tuesday morning. The press release from the Ministry of National Education was published shortly before midnight last night. According to the authorities, this decision is justified after the discovery of ten teachers who tested positive for the coronavirus in Ziguinchor, in the south of the country.

The Minister of Education speaks of "  responsibility  " to "  avoid any risk of the virus spreading in the school environment  ". Precautionary principle therefore which also causes misunderstanding. “  Confusion  ”, “  trial and error  ”, even “  fiasco  ”, many teachers denounce a “  pretext  ”, and affirm that the State was simply not ready to reopen the schools.

A debate for several weeks

This reopening has been debated since its announcement by President Macky Sall on May 11. Unions, students, parents, many have criticized the conditions for this recovery, the lack of resources available to schools - masks, bleach, thermoflashes - as well as the impossibility also to enforce the barrier measures in institutions.

Monday, even before the announcement of the postponement, the Catholic private schools of the country had decided not to reopen this Tuesday, "to  not put the lives of students, staff and their families in danger  ". In a primary school in the district of Grand Dakar visited on Monday, it was volunteers - and not state agents - who cleaned up the dusty classes closed for more than two months.

However, the authorities had stayed the course by organizing last week a large operation of conveying teachers to reach their schools in all regions of the country. A crowd of teachers met at the Liberté 5 bus station in Dakar, often with no gaiety. "  All that for that,  " confided one of them this morning who was wondering how to make the return trip.

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• Senegal
• Coronavirus
• Education

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