The Minister of National Education and Literacy, Promotion of National Languages (MENAPLN), Sosthène Dingara, spoke with education stakeholders in Fada N'Gourma on Friday 29 March 2024.The Eastern region, for several years, has been affected by a security crisis which has caused the closure of several social infrastructures including those in the education sector.It is in this context that Minister Sosthène Dingara came to touch on the realities with stakeholders in this field, on Friday March 29, 2024.According to the minister in charge of education, these regional tours in the different education departments have two fundamental reasons, namely to provide encouragement and support from the government to educators who are fighting despite adversity, and to share the vision educational transition, which is to enable the country to initiate a decisive turning point in development.Thus, Minister Sosthène Dingara announced the challenges of his department, especially for areas with strong security challe nges.These challenges include, among others, the career management of teachers, the digitalization of the education system, the reform of the education system in order to allow school leavers, whatever the order, to be able to think with their heads and hands.Still, the minister suggested that his department is considering how to ensure that national languages strengthen social cohesion and how to improve the organization of competitions and the school canteen.The leaders of the Eastern region described the education picture which presents a drastic decline in indicators.The gross enrollment rate (GER) at primary level, which was nearly 68% before the security crisis, has returned to 22.6%; at secondary level, from 37.2%, the GER increases to 16.8% and at secondary level, from 11% to 9%.The State and its partners have made efforts to allow children to continue to benefit from their right to education despite the security challenge in this locality.This is how 659 establishments are functional ther e. 54,800 children were re-enrolled in primary and post-primary education.During this school year, 97 establishments were reopened to enable the enrollment of 14,316 primary school students and 2,846 post-primary pupils, for a total of 17,162.Despite these efforts, this table indicates, there remains a significant number of children still out of school.Education stakeholders took the opportunity to express their grievances and appreciated the minister's visit.The general delegate of the students of the Yendabili regional vocational high school, Charife Kima, who positively appreciated the exchanges with the minister, noted their concerns, which are among others the construction of educational infrastructures, the construction and equipment of computer rooms, the fencing of school grounds and the construction of school medical centers.The regional director in charge of primary education, Yentéma David Thiombiano, maintained that this visit by the minister gives them more morale to continue on the mom entum of resilience, because Sosthène Dingara listened to all those involved in education on the concerns of the moment and clarified certain aspects that the government is carrying out for the benefit of education stakeholders who are not listed on the ground.Source: Burkina Information Agency