Education+(Elizabeth)

Education By: Elizabeth

Schools

This school is located Bedick village near Kedougou, Senegal. Kedougou is located in south-east Senegal and is south-west of Saraya. Many of the education problems originate from the fact that Senegal is so poor. Many schools teach French in Senegal. But not all of the people think school is important to everyday activities. Most parents take their kids out of school so the kids can help out in the fields. Children usually go to primary school, but only one-third of these children do not advance to secondary school. Most of the schools teach French even though that is not the official language of Senegal. Some officials want to replace French with different languages but they fear that if schools shut out French that Senegal would be isolated from the rest of the world. Some children attend Qur'anic schools which concentrate on Islam and Arabic. These are the schools that are beginning to become more popular. This is a high school in the capitol city of Dakar. Only 15 percent of Senegalese students attend high school. In the 1980s the Senegal government sponsored public information campaigns and educational programs to help fight the AIDs and HIV disease. To help schools expand the government took over new public investments in facilities, teacher salaries, and books in the 1990s. Girls generally don't go to school, the boys dominate the class attendance. Primary enrollment is 67% boys ad 50% girls. Secondary enrollment, in 1992, was 21% boys and 11% girls.

Everyday School Life

There are not many concrete schools in Senegal. One of them are in Namarel. Namarel is in the northern part of Senegal. Most schools only have one teacher because the government can't afford more. Because there is only one teacher only one third of the village can attend that school. Only kids that can walk to the school may attend because there is no public transportation. There are 44 children in this classroom and most of them aren't in the same grade. Some of them are studying for their entrance exam into secondary or high school. If these kids make it into these schools they must find their own way of transportation. The teacher in this classroom teaches the children things beside school work. Such as, how to grow vegetable, or how to build stoves that don't burn too much wood, and how to help his/her parents. He also buys pens and books for his students to write and do math problems in.

Government

To help with this problem the government has created a law that children are required to attend school for at least 6 years. But, only 55% of the children go to elementary school and only 10% of them go to high school. And less than 10% of the high schoolers move on to college. The Senegalese government reserves 40% of their budget for education. That money is used to build new buildings in rural areas, repair existing school, and provide more training for the faculty.

Literacy Rates

The literacy rate in Senegal is 40.2%, as of 2003. 1/2 of the men above the age of 15 can read and write. Less than 31% of all women are literate.

Bibliography

Berg, Elizabeth L. //Senegal//. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1999. Print. Brownlie, Alison. //Worldfocus Senegal//. Crystal Lake, IL: Rigby Interactive Library, 1997. Print. Mulroy, Tanya. //Africa Senegal//. Broomall: Mason Crest Publishers, 2008. Print. “Republic of Senegal-Education.” //Culture Grams World Edition//. Proquest, 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. . “Senegal:Youth Literacy Rate.” //Globalis//. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. . Streissguth, Tom. //Sengal in Pictures//. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing Group. Inc., 2009. Print.