Bujumbura : children displaced following floods take the national test in difficult conditions

From June 4 to 6, 2024, the national test takes place in Burundi for 9th grade pupils. The 2023-2024 edition takes place in 907 centers. A Mubimbi center in the province of Bujumbura (western Burundi) hosts children who were recently relocated from the Gatumba zine, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the regions which have been greatly affected by the floods. The candidates take the test in very difficult conditions.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Hundreds of families have been relocated from Gatumba to Mubimbi by the Burundian authorities in recent weeks. Children from those families who have become internally displaced, take the national exam, like other learners from the small East African nation, in the 9th year class with a view to being admitted to the higher or post basic cycle. However, the new occupants of Matyazo face enormous challenges, which affects their concentration.

The living conditions on the site require a real power of adaptation : The smallness of the site means that young people and adults sleep in the same tent, the site itself is in fairly critical hygienic conditions, without talking about the toilets with just basic sanitation as in any improvised displaced persons’ camp.

“All these young people had in their habits in Gatumba a rhythm of life which is currently completely turned upside down. Each participated in their own way in the life of their family either by bringing water home, or by going to buy coal for cooking evening food, or by helping their shopkeeper mother to empty the shelves and bring in the unsold items…, before meeting up with local friends for lesson revision or explanations from the most gifted if necessary”, analyzes a woman journalist specializing in children’s issues in Burundi.

Sheds serving as shelters for the new occupants of Matyazo, May 10, 2024

They were welcomed by the cold in Mubimbi, new comrades and candidates for the test without forgetting that they had a new registration number, she continues.

Today, according to parents, the atmosphere is not one of preparation for the competition, but of adaptation to the new life in this strange place.

Parents are already denouncing untenable conditions. Léa Ntamavukiro, mother of 10 children, is a new occupant of Matyazo. Initially, she moved with only one child.

“It’s a completely new life that we are starting here. I don’t think we will be able to live here. I came with this one child. My husband and the other children stayed in Gatumba. We put ourselves in the hands of God only,” she said.

As for Josephine who has 7 children, she is afraid of the future.

“Apart from the cold to which we are exposed, we ask ourselves a lot of questions : how will our children be able to study? There is no market here, how will we survive? We have a lot of unanswered questions, perhaps be that the government will help us. We are really afraid of our future,” laments the woman who lost everything, including part of the aid she had received before being relocated.

“Everything indicates that these candidates are losing in this competition which, for most pupils, is like a game of ‘heads or tails’, because it opens or closes the doors to education.”

At least 3,306 teachers have been mobilized to monitor 81,429 pupils this year, Burundian Minister in charge of National Education François Havyarimana announced on Tuesday.

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Children waiting to be relocated to the Mubimbi site, May 10, 2024