Government suspends university grants after protest action

Gabon has suspended an overhaul of university grants that last week sparked three days of student protests and led to shuttered schools, with Education Minister Michel Menga M’Essonne announcing late last Tuesday that the changes “will not be applied this year”, reports AFP.

A working group will look at “ways of progressively implementing this reform”, he said. High schools, which the authorities closed last week in response to the protests, would reopen on Thursday “across the country”, he said.

Thousands of high school pupils had taken to the streets in the capital Libreville and other cities over a decree that would considerably reduce the number of students eligible to apply for the grant, which is worth some XAF83,000 a month (US$142).
Full report on The Citizen site