Schools in Tigray to re-open after three years

By Faida Idris
Kanempress
18th March 2023

A plan to re-open schools in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray has begun three years after being forced to close after conflict broke out between Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the central government.

Many schools were looted and destroyed during the civil war.

Human Rights Watch had in In 2021 reported that a quarter of all schools in Tigray had been damaged during the war and teachers also not being paid for two years.

Unicef’s Chief of Education, Chance Briggs, said plans are on to re-open the schools.

“They are looking for a mid-April start date but that is yet to be endorsed,” Briggs
said.

“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 stressed.

A parent and an assistant professor at Mekelle University, Mengist Gebremedhin in Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, said 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,” athe Professor Gebremedhin said.

He 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.”