Ouagadougou, The Ministry in charge of National Education and the local authorities exchanged for two days, on several subjects including the protection of school grounds.

“I appreciated these exchanges which were the subject of communication in particular on the protection of school grounds because some mayors were still not aware that it was their responsibility to protect school grounds”, rejoiced. Prof. Stanislas Ouaro.

The Minister in charge of National Education spoke Tuesday at the closing ceremony of the 5th edition of the Days of consultation between his department and the municipalities of the Ouagadougou basin.

He noted that the Concertation Days were marked by a communication from the association of municipalities of Burkina Faso.

The communication showed the different stages and responsibilities of the municipalities in the protection of school areas, he noted.

According to his explanations, it was a question of capitalizing on these experiences of protecting school areas and sharing them with other municipalities which until then had not put it into practice.

The communication also enabled local authorities to plead with the Ministry of the Economy so that certain procedures could be streamlined to enable them to be able to play this role effectively, added Mr. Ouaro.

For Ouaro, these consultations make it possible to assess and take stock of the implementation of the powers transferred to the municipalities.

From 2009 to 2021, the Ministry of National Education transferred 255 billion FCFA to support the skills transferred to the municipalities.

The consultations also make it possible to highlight the shortcomings and make recommendations to improve the management of these transferred skills, said Professor Ouaro.

The Minister announced that one of the flagship recommendations is the capitalization of the contributions of communities to the operation of schools.

“In addition to what we do, there are municipalities which contribute a lot, through their own budget, to the construction of infrastructure or to the rehabilitation of school infrastructure”, he said.

Communities also support basic education in means of travel to allow educational supervisors to carry out field work, added Mr. Ouaro.

The two days of consultation also focused on the management of funds transferred for canteens, the implementation of education in emergency situations, the minister said.

Source: Burkina Information Agency