RUYIGI February 20th (ABP) – More than 4,000 students have dropped out of school in the first term of the current school year in Ruyigi province (eastern Burundi), according to the provincial director of education, Mr. Bernard Gasigaye. He advises students to continue their studies and better prepare their future.
According to Mr. Gasigaye, the phenomenon of school dropout, which is more common in the Moso region, is among the main challenges of Ruyigi province. In fact, 4648 pupils and students have dropped out of school in the first term of the current school year, Mr. Gasigaye said. He pointed out that several causes would be behind those dropouts. He cites, among other things, poverty. Some families are forcing their children out of school to help their parents at home and in the fields. There are also children who are much more attracted to money and much more involved in street trading of small items such as peanuts, donuts and eggs. The same children practice the rice growing in the marshes and sell their production. They start the trade in the shops and thus leave school definitively. Other children also leave school due to unwanted pregnancies.
To that end, the Provincial Director of Education urges those schoolgirls and students to return to their classes as soon as the weaning of their babies is over. Indeed, he says, Burundian law allows girl-mothers to resume their studies, but in an establishment other than the one in which they were before they became pregnant. In that regard, the Provincial Director of Education reports that six girls became pregnant in the first term of this 2018-2019 school year, including four in Butaganzwa commune and two in Kinyinya commune. Another part of those who drop out are looking for jobs on the Tanzanian side because they believe that life is easier on the other side of the border.
Mr. Gasigaye calls on the administrative authorities and parents to hold sensitization and moralization sessions to encourage them to inculcate in their children the benefits of school. It is noted that the children who leave school are for the most part those whose parents are illiterate. He also calls on everyone to fully fight against this bad habit of dropping out of school to achieve the goal of 85% school success in all schools of the Ruyigi province.