Central African Republic

On May 5, 2022, GCPEA conducted an Orientation on the Toolkit at a Regional Meeting on the Implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration in West and Central Africa; the meeting convened EiE and CPiE specialists from across the region. At least 20 people were in attendance; the meeting was also recorded and further disseminated. GCPEA provided simultaneous interpretation (English-French) for the meeting which enhanced participation of the GCPEA secretariat as well as representatives from both anglophone and francophone countries. The orientation covered definitions of attacks, the GCPEA data collection tools, and sharing of good practices in reporting on attacks on education. Following the meeting, the group set several action points, many of which related to GCPEA’s orientation or other GCPEA work. The Regional EiE and CPiE working groups agreed to 1) Define a minimum set of indicators to be regularly collected by countries in the region (based on existing tools including the GCPEA toolkit); Propose to the clusters of the region further GCPEA training on their toolkit and to support the GCPEA-Spain Training; Undertake a granular analysis of the nuances between 'schools closed'/'education under attack'/'schools not-functional'. In addition, the group committed to several advocacy actions for the International Day and Transforming Education Summit.

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In 2015, in some areas, community members, with the support of UNICEF, started an SMS alert system, EduTrac, that linked schools, communities, and local and national Ministries via text message. This allowed education personnel, especially in schools in remote communities, to communicate education data, such as enrollment and attendance, to regional and national education authorities. In addition, schools targeted for attack could utilize EduTrac to report attacks to the Ministries and police and receive support. In 2006, when entire communities in conflict-affected areas in northern Central African Republic fled to the bush to avoid fighting and attacks targeting villages, temporary “bush schools” were established by teachers, parents, and community members, with assistance from UNICEF and other donors, including the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DfID) and the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). Parents were offered short teacher training courses and served as teachers in the bush schools. They delivered lessons that attempted to parallel the national curriculum taught in government schools, teaching over 100,000 students in makeshift shelters or under trees.

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