VOA常速英语2008年-Teachers, Students Unsure about Future of Guine

By Phuong Tran
Canchungo, Guinea Bissau
01 April 2008

The West African nation of Guinea-Bissau has one of the worst school systems in the world, according to the United Nations. Teachers go for months without getting paid, and often go on strike. Phuong Tran reports for VOA from the town of Canchungo, where students are urging the government to keep teachers in the classroom, while teachers complain their demands are ignored.

Ho Chi Minh High School is 70 kilometers outside of the country's capital, Bissau. When mango and cashew season starts in June, most students work in the fields. Student Norberto Paulo Mendes splits¹ his time between selling his family's harvest and school.

"My father and my mother are very poor, so I do not have money to pay the school. So I have to go find job to find the money to pay the school," said Mendes. "I want you to help me because I am very tired. I am very tired."

The school year is often unpredictable.

Teachers frequently go on weeks-long strikes to demand salaries the government could not afford to pay. Five years ago, the education minister declared a school year invalid² because teachers had only taught about 10 percent of the required time.

Despite going on strike last year to demand pay owed to him, teacher Marciano Alfredo Cumba says the government still owes him one year of salary. He says he needs to go to the capital for medical treatment, but cannot afford to make the trip.

Student Jean Batista Mendes says it is time teachers get what is owed to them. "If the government does not pay, schools cannot work," he said. "We cannot learn through all the strikes that interrupt our classes. It is hard to be young here. It is complicated to study. I would like to ask the president to pay not only teachers, but all state employees."

Some development analysts³ say Guinea-Bissau's government budget is misguided, and that more should be spent on education and less on the military.

Officials say periodic⁴ military takeovers and coup⁵ attempts, a rebellion⁶ to the south in the Senegalese Casamance region, and pensions for the large number of combatants who fought for independence from Portugal have swelled⁷ this small country's military budget.

But in the 2008 budget, there have been efforts to increase education spending.

Canchungo student Norberto Paulo Mendes says he thinks things will be better. He is willing to risk a career on this hope.

"I would like to be a teacher. I think they will pay the teachers very well. I know. I think," he said.

But one of his school's administrators⁸, 30-year-old Carlito Mendes, says the government also needs to take care of unfinished business.

He says he needs his salary owed from 2007. He has not been paid since last October. 

1 splits   

劈叉； 划分( split的名词复数 )； 分歧； 裂缝； 劈叉

参考例句：

• The river splits into three smaller streams at this point. 这条河在此处分成三条小河。
• Usually only a trained dancer can do the splits. 通常只有训练有素的舞蹈演员才会劈叉。

2 invalid   

n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的

参考例句：

• He will visit an invalid.他将要去看望一个病人。
• A passport that is out of date is invalid.护照过期是无效的。

3 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

4 periodic   

adj.周期的，定期的，时而发生的

参考例句：

• Long long ago,we knew the periodic motion of a planet.很久以前，我们就知道行星的周期运动。
• These arrangements are subject to periodic reviews.这几项安排每隔一定时间须予复查。

5 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

6 rebellion   

n.造反，叛乱，反抗

参考例句：

• The next year they rose up in rebellion.第二年他们就揭竿起义了。
• The new government quickly suppressed the rebellion.新政府迅速把叛乱镇压下去。

7 swelled   

增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情）

参考例句：

• The infection swelled his hand. 由于感染，他的手肿了起来。
• After the heavy rain the river swelled. 大雨过后，河水猛涨。

8 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城