New school term in Mayotte off to difficult start six weeks after cyclone Chido
Some 115,000 pupils began returning to school in Mayotte on Monday, six weeks after cyclone Chido devastated the French Indian Ocean archipelago. Conditions remain difficult for both teachers and pupils and some schools remain shuttered for the time being.
The start of the school year, scheduled for 13 January, had already been postponed twice due to the severe damage caused by Chido and storm Dikeledi.
Despite calls for further delays, the education authorities went ahead with Monday’s reopening, stressing the importance of staying in touch with pupils.
However,39 of Mayotte's 221 primary schools and three of its secondary schools will not open immediately due to extensive damage.
For both teachers and pupils alike, it’s a difficult time.
"I’m quite pessimistic because conditions are very degraded," high school teacher Olivier Thomas told RFI.
He works at the Sada high school in the western part of Grande-Terre – one of the archipelago's three islands. It was badly damaged so pupils are heading back in rotating classes, with middle and high school students attending one or two days per week.
"We’ll welcome around 650 pupils of the 2,400 we would usually have," Thomas said. "All or part of the high school is inaccessible due to repair works. There’ll be no canteen, no access to labs, so it will be a very difficult and very unusual new term."
Youssouf Abdallah, a primary school teacher and union rep, expressed concern that not all the children will return.
Read more on RFI English
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