Rural Schools in Tunisia Face Significant Challenges During Winter Months
Every year, the start of the school year is marked by particularly difficult conditions in remote and isolated rural areas within the country. This difficulty is exacerbated by the arrival of winter.
As soon as the first rains fall, the journey to primary schools becomes a real obstacle course for students and their parents. The paths quickly become muddy and, as a result, completely impassable.
In Nefza (governorate of Béja), in the Housh district, the start of the school year is always a bitter experience for parents. When precipitation becomes intense in this area during the autumn and winter seasons, parents are forced to take time off work to help their children - nearly thirty students - navigate the journey to the primary school.
"In our district, when there is heavy rain, the path that leads to the primary school, which is three kilometers long, becomes muddy and completely impassable," said a parent from the area on a private radio station. "The children have to wear thick boots to be able to walk in the mud, and the journey becomes so painful that I have to carry my child on my back to take them to school."
The lack of paved roads in the Housh district is the main cause of student absenteeism, with over thirty students enrolled in the primary school in this small locality in northwest Tunisia.
After arriving at school with empty stomachs and muddy feet, these students are forced to stay outside during lunch breaks, often making do with a meager sandwich that barely satisfies their hunger.
This situation, which is similar in several other small towns in the country, requires an intervention that involves both the Ministries of Equipment and Education to improve teaching conditions in schools in remote and isolated areas, which should become priority education zones.
One of the measures that should be taken is to pave the roads to open up these isolated localities and reduce the phenomenon of school absenteeism.
Furthermore, it is also necessary to consider the need to equip remote schools, which are several kilometers away from residential areas, with canteens to provide meals for students, and dormitories that offer a secure accommodation solution when bad weather makes it impossible for them to return home.
This would help to ensure that students in these areas have access to a decent education, despite the challenges posed by the weather and the lack of infrastructure.
