After being forced to close due to fighting between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the government, a plan to reopen schools in Tigray, Ethiopia’s northern region, has been put into motion.
Many schools were burned down and robbed during the American Civil War.
According to a report from Human Rights Watch published in 2021, the fighting in Tigray had devastated 25 percent of the country’s schools. Also, teachers have not been paid in two years.
“They are looking for a mid-April start date but that is yet to be endorsed,” Unicef’s Chief of Education, Chance Briggs, told newsmen about the plans to re-open the schools.
“The whole of the education system in Tigray has collapsed. Since July of last year we have 2.3 million children out of school,” he added.
One parent, Mengist Gebremedhin, who lives with his wife and four children in Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, told reporters that two of his children were in primary school when the civil war broke out.
“I tried to mentor them but there were distractions – the sound of bombings and drones. The children would see soldiers carrying guns and then imitate them.”
Mengist, who is an assistant professor at Mekelle University, had also not received his salary for months.
“We were not getting our salaries so we were worrying about what to feed them. It was not easy to focus on educating them. But yesterday I got my salary – so now I can buy my children clothes and food.”