When teacher Abdussattar Mansi visited his school in the village of Manassah in Kairouan Governorate, a few days before school started, he found that nothing had changed. Scattered tables and chairs, ceilings and walls full of cracks, shattered windows and damaged computers were still the same. Even the school’s fence, which was destroyed five years ago had not been repaired. The health complex and contaminated water still posed a threat to students.

When teacher Abdussattar Mansi visited his school in the village of Manassah in Kairouan Governorate, a few days before school started, he found that nothing had changed. Scattered tables and chairs, ceilings and walls full of cracks, shattered windows and damaged computers were still the same. Even the school’s fence, which was destroyed five years ago had not been repaired. The health complex and contaminated water still posed a threat to students.

Mansi’s visit coincided with a decision by the Ministry of Education (MoE) to extend the The Month of School campaign which was launched during the summer to mobilize donations from individuals and civil society organizations to restore Tunisia’s schools.

Although the MoE started to maintain some 3,000 schools in different areas, the infrastructure of many schools is still very poor.

Minister of Education Néji Jalloul said next year Tunisian schools would be the best in the world, but Mansi argues that no money has been invested in renovating his school in his isolated and forgotten village.

Back to school, when?

The academic year began in mid-September with hundreds of students who returned to schools that lack necessary equipment and fall below safety standards. Field visits by officials of the Kairouan Education Directorate revealed that nearly 400 schools are in urgent need of maintenance and restoration. It has even been reported that some schools need to be completely rebuilt because they are dangerous to students and parts of the roofs could cave in.

Educators and parents, says Mansi, have begun to collect donations to restore some schools. The parents and teachers at his school have already started to restore the fence in order to protect students and the school.

Kairouan Governor Shukri Belhassen says about TND 7 million (US $3,600,000) was disbursed to rehabilitate schools in Kairouan, but the amount was not enough. Moreover, an additional TND 3 million (US $1.5 ) was allocated to complete the restoration of schools and renovations are still in progress, which has caused overcrowding in other schools. This has embarrassed Tunisian authorities because they have been unable to fulfill their promise of completing all schools by the beginning of the school year.

The MoE faces other challenging challenges in its battle with the Primary Education Syndicate (PES), which threatened a two-day strike at the start of the school year. The PES continues to calls for decreased working hours and some grants and promotions.

General Secretary of PES branch in Kairouan Sayed Sbou’ee accuses the MoE of marginalizing educators and government education. “The teachers wanted to participate with the students in their joy of returning to school, but the strike decision was necessary since the MoE has failed to fulfill its obligations,” he said.

Sbou’ee deplores that many educational institutions are unable to receive students due to poor infrastructure. When asked about the enrollment of thousands of students in non-government schools, he said this reflected the government’s orientation to affect public education and pave the way for private investment in the education sector.

In a media statement on the sidelines of his visit to a number of educational institutions, Minister Jalloul said he would not allow anyone to manipulate the fate of students. He argued that school was a joint interest of the MoE, trade unions, parents, political parties and the parliament. “The MoE is seeking to solve all problems to ensure a normal return to school,” said Jalloul.