Central Africa Republic: The country with no teachers

Rivals have been fighting in the Central African Republic since 2013. In the chaos the school teachers have quietly disappeared so now parents are going through crash courses to replace them.

Farmer Apollinaire Zaoro knows a thing or two about planting. While his maize and cassava grow in the field, he is sowing seeds of knowledge in young minds.

The school in his village, 25km (15 miles) from the capital, has no qualified teachers.

And so for the past three months, Mr Zaoro, 58, has been leading a class of 105 primary school children.

Decades of neglect compounded by four years of war have picked off most of the Central African Republic's trappings of nationhood: local government, hospitals, clinics, police stations and a national education system.

The UN says 2.3 million people half the population are dependent on aid.

Armed groups are fighting across 80% of the territory. They often use school buildings as base camps, playgrounds as firing ranges and turn desks and chairs into firewood.

Most qualified teachers, unable to collect their salaries because there are no banks outside the capital, have abandoned their positions.

SOURCE: BBC NEWS
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