Burundi teachers across the country have swung into a massive protest as they reject the government order to conduct on them an aptitude test.
The test planned for 33,000 teachers, according to the Ministry in charge of Education, is aimed at detecting the strengths and weaknesses of teachers by subject.
The ministry wanted to verify whether the complaints about the decline in the quality of education in Burundi were founded.
However, a teachers’ union ‘Coalition of teachers for national solidarity’ has protested against this test.
According to this teachers’ union, it would also be a violation of the legal procedure for the further training of State civil servants, the responsibility of which does not fall to the ministry but to an inter-ministerial committee for further training set up by the Ministry of the civil service according to the article 73 of the general status of civil servants.
In a memorandum from the teachers’ unions submitted to the ministry in charge of education on January 6, the teachers say they regret “untimely measures which make the teacher feel guilty” and say they are dismayed that the deterioration in the quality of education is attributable solely to the teacher, disregarding the real factors that corrupt the system.
And to list overcrowded classes, insufficient teaching aids, insufficient equipment, absence of laboratories and libraries, etc.
“We must not ignore the incessant decisions on the education system which are taken without the effective involvement of the practitioner in the field”, then regret the teachers.
Education professionals also say they are indignant at the games of extensions which, according to them, are observed when it comes to dealing with issues aimed at improving the living and working conditions of the teaching official. And to wonder if these measures would not be disseminated with the aim of distracting teachers “in order to divert them from their long-presented demands.”
As proof, the teachers mention the level test planned for teachers in the first three cycles. “Organizing a level test for teachers is a way of making the teacher feel guilty and a headlong rush in the face of workers’ rights. “
