Nyankanda : a school semester sacrificed by teacher shortages and derisory salaries

SOS Médias Burundi

Nyankanda, February 10, 2026 – The end of the first semester of the 2025-2026 school year at the Nyankanda refugee camp secondary school left a bitter taste for pupils, parents, and even the remaining teachers. This semester ended in an atmosphere marked by numerous missed classes, a direct consequence of a persistent teacher shortage.

The Nyankanda camp, located in Buhumuza province in eastern Burundi, is home to more than 12,000 Congolese refugees. The camp’s secondary school has nearly a thousand enrolled pupils, but since the beginning of the school year, it has faced a wave of teacher resignations. Due to a lack of timely replacements, many classes are not being held. Pupils sometimes find themselves outside during class : some sitting under trees, others wandering freely outside the school grounds, simply waiting for the time to go home.

Meager salaries at the heart of the crisis

According to several sources, the main cause of these departures is the low pay of teachers. Currently, a teacher earns approximately 115,000 Burundi francs (BIF) per month, a salary considered woefully inadequate given soaring market prices and the responsibilities of the profession.

“With 115,000 BIF per month, while prices rise every day, it becomes very difficult to provide for one’s family,” explains one teacher who remains in his post. Adding to this financial hardship are problems with school discipline and the interference of certain organizations opposed to disciplinary measures, which further discourages teachers.

A worrying lack of recruitment

Despite these successive departures, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), the organization in charge of education in the camp, has not yet recruited new teachers to replace those who have left, leaving a worrying void in the education system.

Parents and teachers concerned

Mutupeke, a parent of a pupil, expresses his dismay :

“Children are outside during class time, others come and go freely from the school. When asked why, they say there are no teachers for certain periods. The second semester starts this Monday, February 16, and our children need teachers for every class period. Education is the only wealth we can leave them.”

The teachers still employed confirm that many have left the profession to start small businesses or other income-generating activities, due to the lack of a decent salary and the lack of respect for their authority in the classroom.

An urgent need for action in the second semester

As the second semester approaches, parents and pupils are calling on the JRS organization to take urgent action to ensure the continuity of classes and to provide pupils with a stable and dignified educational environment, an essential condition for building the future of an entire generation.