A School bag can be a big contribution to Education in Burundi.

Joyeux Joel Kanteriteka, is a five-year-old boy studying in first grade at Nyamparahara primary school, in Cankuzo commune, east of Burundi. He used to come to school with his copy books in hands. His pencils were sometimes lost or school materials got wasted because of rain. Thanks to World Vision gifts-in-kind, he has a brand new school bag; he no longer comes in class without pencils or wasted copy books.

“I used to hide my copy books under my coat when it rained”, Joyeux Joel explains, smiling while holding a new school bag.

More than 1,000 school bags have been given to children from vulnerable families to help them to protect their school materials.

The yearly National Report on education system in Burundi 2012 (Le Rapport d’Etat du system Educatif Burundais, 2012), stipulates that only 60 per cent of pupils who start in first grade of primary school are able to reach in grade 6 in six years. The remaining 40 per cent drop out for different reasons or are obliged to redo some grades.

Poverty and lack of school materials are some of the reasons that cause children to fail or drop out of school.

“School bags like this can contribute a lot to education in Burundi. We are witnessing a serious issue of teaching children who come to class without pencils and pens or whose copy books are torn because they do not keep them well,” explains Melanie Ciza, a teacher of Joyeux Joel.

“Look, it has many pockets. Children can keep their pencils and copy books in and take them out only when they are in class or home,” she exclaims.

Because of poverty, school children are using plastic or cloth bags to protect their school materials. Those bags are not as safe as bags like those of World Vision.

“They are helpful, they keep well our school materials but when it rains our copy books are drenched wet. Plastic bags do not spend a long time without being torn,” says one child, a friend to Joel while looking at Joel’s new bag.

When children lose school materials, teachers send them back home so as to come back with other materials. Some kids keep on coming to school without those materials, Melanie has noticed.

“As a teacher, when a child comes to school without a pen, you just lend them yours. If there are five or more children without school materials, you just send them back home to bring what they are lacking. But some parents do not respond immediately,” Melanie says. “A child can keep on coming without a pen or a copy book.”

It is not always easy for parents of Cankuzo to buy things that require money on the spot.