After three months of vacation, administrative staff and teachers returned to school last Monday, preceding the students who returned to class on October 8. In the Matam region, the new academic year faces numerous structural challenges, linked to a shortage of teachers, a lack of desks and benches, and dilapidated classrooms.

The Matam academy recorded 349 departures and only 59 arrivals, across all sectors, in the national teacher movement. With needs this year standing at 392 teachers at the preschool and elementary levels, after a cumulative deficit of 212 teachers, 174 departures were recorded, at the level of these teaching sectors which recorded only 40 arrivals. Of the 66 departures recorded in middle education, for four arrivals, while the needs concern 97 teachers, following the cumulative deficit of 35 teachers.

In secondary education, the situation is far from rosy, as the sector, which has seen 96 departures, has only benefited from 12 replacements, for a cumulative deficit of 20 teachers for a need of 83 teachers.

In terms of vocational training, four arrivals were recorded compared to the departures of 12 teachers.

These figures not only provide information on the size of the enormous gap to be filled, but also conceal the loss of quality human resources due to the departure of more than a hundred experienced teachers each year.

In total, the academy, which has seen 349 departures across all levels of education, plus one departure noted by the supervisory body, has only benefited from 59 arrivals, which are far from covering the cumulative deficit of 572 teachers (FPT not included). "A situation that would be difficult to resolve, even if the academy benefits from the quota of new graduates and an allocation commensurate with the departures," emphasizes a union representative.

To enable schools to start up, despite this recurring handicap, the academy intends to develop strategies, through management based on the redeployment and opening of special classes (double flow, multigrade, trigrade) which crystallizes, until now, the resilience of the region in the face of the heavy deficit of teaching staff.

19,419 unusable tables and benches, 162 schools and establishments to be rehabilitated

In total, 162 schools and establishments are listed as requiring rehabilitation work. The work mainly concerns blown-off roofs, floors that need to be repaired, boundary walls, or classrooms.

At the elementary education level, which is paying a heavy price for the damage suffered due to the bad weather, 105 schools are awaiting renovations to ensure the smooth running of teaching and learning. At the general secondary education level, 21 establishments are also in need of rehabilitation, as are preschool education, for 18 structures, and general secondary education for 18 structures.

In addition to the rehabilitation of temporary shelters, classrooms, latrines, boundary walls, and toilets, the repair of desks and benches is an urgent need to be addressed. A census operation revealed a stock of 19,419 desks and benches in poor condition in the three departments of the region, affecting all levels of the education system. A detail of the situation that does not refer to the deficit in desks and benches, which is nevertheless noticeable in elementary schools, where students often sit four at a table, shows that at the elementary level, 14,605 desks and benches are out of use, in the general middle school, 2,463 units and 2,312 in the general secondary school.

However, the academy received "a grant of 3,646 desks and benches from the Ministry of Education" to deal with this.