This is the end of the contributions paid up to that time to the management committees of the educational institutions (COGES) by the students’ parents. This Monday, December 14, during his oath, Alassane Ouattara made a statement that did not go unnoticed. The Ivorian president said that from January, the state and local communities would cover COGES costs. Costs that increase every year and their use have recently been misused.
Costs that are considered unreasonable, handling the most opaque. COGES fees have been particularly criticized for several years. In a country where schooling, compulsory from 6 to 16, is to be free, these fees generally amount to several thousand CFA francs per child and vary from one facility to another.
Only a part of these sums actually goes to school management committees, the rest goes to certain administrations or to unknown pockets. In addition to these COGES costs, other additional costs, exams, sports or photos are added.
COGES was created in 1995 to run the schools and is first led by the prefects, sub-prefects and mayors. Since 2012, the parents of students came there to participate in the management of the expenses they pay themselves.
If the idea works well on paper, it is quickly misled and condemned as a “racketeering”. “Coges is no longer this inclusive start-up committee, has become the business of a group of administrations with the participation of a minority of parents of crooked students”, was condemned 15 days ago by a group of youth associations united within the Assises de la jeunesse estudiantine in Côte d’Ivoire.
For its part, FESCI, the powerful student and school association, had made the abolition of this COGES fee system its hobby horse. Today, its Secretary-General, Saint-Clair Alla, is enjoying his victory following this decision, which “gives free meaning to free school policy”.
