FOCUS: Japanese woman teaches at 'terakoya' school in Ivory Coast

In the some 27 years she has been in Cote d'Ivoire, Kazuko Sonoda has witnessed the nation popularly known as Ivory Coast transform from a stable model African state with remarkable economic growth into a country torn by civil war.

A military coup in 1999 plunged the nation into internal warfare in 2002 that led the country to be in a state of partition in which antigovernment elements dominated the north while the south was under control of government forces.

A peace process has been under way after both sides agreed to end the hostilities in 2003.

The 59-year-old Sonoda, who lives in the largest city of Abidjan with her husband Mory Traore, said, ''Education in this country is getting worse day by day compared with when I first came here.''

Existing schools, she said, are in a state of disintegration as disgruntled teachers strike repeatedly over unpaid salaries.

It was against such a background that the nongovernmental organization Centre Africain de Recherche-Formation-Creation en Arts du Spectacle et Communication or CARAS opened a ''terakoya'' private school in a room at an apartment house it uses as its office in September in the West African country where chaos continues even after the end of the civil war.

Those coming to terakoya -- the name for the private elementary schools operated during the feudal Edo period (1603-1867) in Japan -- are chiefly children younger than 10 years old.

They receive lessons, including arithmetic and music, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. The language used is English instead French, which is the country's official language.

''English will be the language of the time from now on,'' Sonoda said in an interview.

She and other teachers have been receiving applicants for admission to their school in the face of interest demonstrated by parents and children who are dissatisfied with education provided by existing local schools.

The sound of hand clapping was heard from the classroom at 9:30 a.m. as children sang a song with Sonoda playing the piano.

''Lessons here are very delightful,'' said 8-year-old Mary Helene Kanga with a smiling face after taking the music lesson. ''I like arithmetic particularly. I'd like to be a doctor in the future and help many patients.''

Sonoda said she is teaching at the school because she strongly believes she should do something for children. She said parents and those in their generation are responsible for educating children.

''I'd like to teach children things necessary for them to live in whatever environment they might face,'' she said.