It takes two to tango, but the same number can also make a school.

Near the Tunisian-Algerian border in southern Tunisia lies the Ain al-Qataa school, which this year is preparing to reopen its doors for only two students.

School for two

“For two years, I’ve been studying in the al-Qataa school with only my sister,” says Mohamed, a fifth grader. ”It is not fun to go back to school as there are no friends to meet,” says 8-year-old Maha, Mohamed’s young sister and only classmate.

It takes two to tango, but the same number can also make a school.

Near the Tunisian-Algerian border in southern Tunisia lies the Ain al-Qataa school, which this year is preparing to reopen its doors for only two students.

School for two

“For two years, I’ve been studying in the al-Qataa school with only my sister,” says Mohamed, a fifth grader. ”It is not fun to go back to school as there are no friends to meet,” says 8-year-old Maha, Mohamed’s young sister and only classmate.

Mohamed says the school has more staff than students.  “There are two teachers and a headmaster who supervise our education.”

Necessarily top of the class

Despite the one-to-one tuition, Mohamed says always coming first or second in exams is hardly motivating. “I wish there were other students so that I could compete with them,” he says.

The classroom itself is tiny and can barely accommodate the siblings and students, as if it was purpose-built for the two. “The whole school consists of one big hall divided into three rooms,” says the guard, who also owns the premises.  “The land on which this school was built belongs to me and I was expecting the government to solve the problem but until now, it didn’t.”  

The problem is the school is located on the remote Tunisian-Algerian border.  Administratively, it is in Gafsa Province and is part of the district of Umm al-Araes where today, no more than 20 families live. Residents have continued to leave the village for neighbouring towns in recent years so that their children can attend secondary school.

Exodus of school parents

“More than 5 years ago, I was obliged to leave this village in order to enrol one of my sons in a secondary school,” Mohamed bin Balah Ali Mabrouky, who owns olive orchards in the district of Umm al-Araes, told Correspondents. 

“I enrolled my younger children in one of the elementary schools in the city like all other villagers who were forced to leave their farms that used to provide them with their at least with their basic needs.”  

But his son says he would happily move back to the village if schooling were available. “I would personally choose to live in a village rather than in a city,” says Mabrouky Jnr.

$32,000 per year to educate two students

Despite the limited number of students, the elementary school in Ain al-Qataa still costs the Ministry of Education 50 thousand dinar a year ($32,000 approx). The history teacher says the money could be better spent.

“The government should allocate a bus to take students every day from the village of Umm al-areas to the school and back.  With the digging of deep wells, people who left to nearby areas  would return and the children of the village can meet again and study together in this village,” says Al-Sadiq al-Mabrouki.

Get the kids a minibus

Ali Mabrouky, a fomer employee in the area, concurs that $16,000 to educate an elementary school student is a lot of money. “It would be better if the government allocated these funds to buy a bus to take the village students to other schools, instead of wasting public money,” says the pensioneer. 

But an education spokesman dismissed the idea.

“Instead of accusing the education ministry of failure, it should be thanked for allocating a budget for the school,” says Qalaei Belqasem, the regional assistant in charge of elementary education in Gafsa Province.

“The Ministry of Education should not be blamed for solving the problem of the al-Qataa school or for not providing students with a bus to enable the village students to study in the Umm al-Araes City. There are other ministries involved in this issue.”

Uncertain future

Mohamedd and Maha’s father works in forest management and he has 4 other children. He told Correspondents that even if he had the financial means to educate his children outside the village, his job as a forest guard forces him to stay in the border area. “This means that my son will unfortunately be forced to drop out school,” he says.

Mohamed Jnr. meanwhile is hoping to see some returnees soon. “I wish some new colleagues come back because my father cannot leave the village to enable me to continue my secondary school education,” says 50 per cent of the al-Qataa school.

But the young student remains hopeful that he will succeed. “I want to become a secondary school teacher,” says Mohamed, who every morning rides his donkey several miles to bring drinking water for his family.

Hi sister has even bigger ambitions. “I want to be a doctor so that I can reopen the clinic near my school which has been closed for years,” says Maha.