Bujumbura : when the election campaign displaces pupils from classrooms

SOS Médias Burundi

Bujumbura, May 29, 2025 — As end-of-year exams approach, the atmosphere in several schools in Bujumbura—the commercial city where United Nations agencies and the central administration are concentrated—is far from studious. This is due to an all-out election campaign, whose noisy and repeated demonstrations distract students from their academic obligations. This situation is increasingly alarming parents, teachers, and civil society actors.

In the northern and southern districts of the commercial capital, political rallies, activist parades, and partisan chanting sessions are multiplying during the day, often near schools. As a result, students, even without being officially invited, end up mingling with the crowds, to the detriment of their studies.

“Children tell us they’re going to study, but to our great surprise, we find them in political marches,” says a mother of three children attending school in Nyakabiga, in the city center.

Some teachers describe a “constant carnival atmosphere” around schools. Groups of young people, sometimes supervised by adults affiliated with political parties, wait for pupils outside class, music blaring and flags in hand. The temptation is great, especially in a context of school fatigue at the end of the year.

A ninth-grade pupil recounts :

“Sometimes, activists come right up to the school gate. They hand out t-shirts or invite us to dance. We stay to have fun, but afterward, we have a hard time getting back to class.”

Consequences are beginning to be felt in school reports. Several schools report a decline in concentration and a decline in overall achievement. Teachers express their helplessness :

“We asked for these gatherings to be held away from schools, but no one listens to us. The state must protect schools from political interference,” pleads a secondary school principal in Kanyosha, south of Bujumbura.

Teachers’ unions are increasingly calling for decency in elections and respect for the right to education. They believe that children, especially the youngest, are being exploited and exposed to premature polarization.

With national exams just weeks away, families fear catastrophic results. They demand an urgent response from educational and political authorities to preserve what remains of the school year.

“We want books, not slogans,” exclaims a father encountered near the Kinindo primary school, in the south of the city.

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A child from a family of CNDD-FDD (Igiswi c’Inkona) activists takes part in a military parade at the Cercle Hippique in Bujumbura on the sidelines of the celebration of the 8th edition of the day dedicated to the Imbonerakure, on August 31, 2024. (SOS Médias Burundi)