BUJUMBURA, Dec. 27th (ABP) – More than 400 children from Gihanga commune in Bubanza province returned to school for the start of the 2023/2024 school year, following a project to combat child labor, implemented by the Burundi Education Workers Union (STEB).
This was indicated on Tuesday, December 24, 2024 by the leader of STEP, Rémy Nsengiyumva, during a workshop to evaluate the activities of the project “Fight against child labor so that the child’s place is school.”
According to him, the STEB conducted the survey in that commune because they found that the latter is more affected by the phenomenon of school dropouts of children between 7 and 15 years old. He added that the return to school of children in the Gihanga commune is the result from a vast training and awareness campaign, orchestrated with teachers, school directors and authorities of the Gihanga commune.
He continued to say that the latter were trained on the rights of the child, the definition of child labor, ways to raise awareness among the population about the importance of education.
Nsengiyumva also explained that child labor is a violation of children’s rights because, according to the survey of that union, he mentioned, children are often involved in small business of vegetables, fruits, drinks, are employed as domestics in urban homes in that commune, and involved in rice growing.
To that end, he called on parents who have not yet sent their children to school to change their mindset, because it is one of the causes that hinder the country’s development; well-educated children can change a lot of things in the community, he insisted.
According to the communal director of education in Gihanga (DCE), Bonaventure Ndayiziga, before this project, no one was responsible for raising parents’ awareness about the importance of education. “The STEP training helped us realize that the message about compulsory schooling must reach every household, that we cannot limit ourselves to talking about it in a meeting.”
According to him, this project calls for synergy between the administration, school directors, teachers and parents, while emphasizing that this synergy provides a force that produces much more important results that will support the education of children and help parents have disciplined children.
He said the return of 404 children to school in Gihanga is a success in the Gihanga commune. However, he called on STEB to continue its project so that all communes are sensitized. This is at a time when, because 1,642 children had been identified as not attending school during the baseline study conducted by STEB in three villages of Gihanga (Muyira, Gihanga and Village3), 765 had enrolled in schools following the first-month sensitization.
“Not all those who intended to return to class did so because some parents and students believed they would receive material aid. Our work must continue to overcome all reluctance,” explained Ndayiziga.
Salvator Habonimana, leader of Gihanga village, thanked STEB for its project. Habonimana asked STEB to continue its project so that all the children of the villages of the Gihanga commune are at school because ‘the child’s place is at school’.