Education System in the Ivory Coast
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[edit] History
[edit] Before the Independence
Adaptation of the French system, which was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century to train clerks and interpreters to help administer the colony. It was aimed at creating a political elite that would identify with France and French culture. The French colonialistic system was not tailored to educate the African people and promote African traditions, virtues and values. The detrimental result of this policy was that in 1945 only 200 Africans had been admitted to state-run primary schools and the nation had only four African university graduates. Private or missionary schools (such as Catholic schools) filled the educational void and enabled at least some Africans to receive a valuable school education.
[edit] After the Independence (1960)
After the Independence improvement of the state-run educational system became one major goal of the new democratic nation. Village elders established and supported village schools leading to better school access in rural areas, secondary schools began to prepare students for higher education and scholarship programs were implemented to send a few to Senegal, Europe and the US. Within less than 20 years School enrollments increased ninefold and the overall literacy rate started to increase every year. Furthermore the people of the Ivory Coast could identify themselves with the new schools and actively contributed for further development of the educational system.
[edit] Decade of Education for All (80s, 90s)
Ivory Coast spent a higher share of its gross national product on education than any other country in the world. This major committment boasted a 43 percent literacy rate overall, 53 percent for men and 31 percent for women in 1988. Curricula, textbooks, and teaching methods were newly designed in order to reflect local rather than Foreign cultural values. The schools were mostly tuition free (in some schools children had to buy school uniforms) and promoted high academic standards. The education has been well rounded and the basic subjects such has reading, writing and French have been taught as well as natural history and science. To encourage the success of girls, prevailing cultural stereotypes and mentalities presented huge obstacles. The educational Ministry tried to change the image of women, and encouraged the use of female role models such as teachers and successful women, to encourage young girls to stay at school. To ensure the retention of girls in the school system, the need for girls' protection was identified, particularly concerning early pregnancy, which is a major obstacle to completing education. Due to the active role of the Ivory Coast government to promote girls education the enrollment ratio for girls in jumped from 33 % to 64%. Despite the groundbreaking general success of the Ivory Coast educational system the system has been not very flexible to address the needs for subsistence farming in rural areas. Many families could not afford to spare the work contributed by a child. Furthermore children also missed classes due to field work and the high academic standards did not allow them to successfully continue in school and pass the rigorous tests. This led to a low efficiency of the system, high dropout levels and repeated course work for children whose families could not afford to send them to school on a daily basis.
[edit] The Education system
The education system comprised three stages: primary school lasted six years, leading to a certificate of primary studies; secondary school lasted seven years, leading to a certificate or baccalauréat. University education, available only in Abidjan, culminated in a university degree. The school year was divided into three terms, beginning in September and separated by short Christmas and Easter holidays and a two-month summer recess. The average week consisted of approximately thirty hours of classes, Monday through Saturday morning.
[edit] Primary Education
Children entered primary school at the age of seven or eight and passed through six grades, divided into preparatory, elementary, and intermediate levels. In the first six months, students mastered French, the language of instruction. Classes in reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught, gradually supplemented by history, geography, natural sciences, music, art, and physical education. Rural schools also required students to work in school gardens and learn basic agricultural methods. Standard school-leaving exams led to the certificate of elementary education (certificat d'étude primaires élémentaires--CEPE) and determined entrance to secondary institutions.
[edit] Secondary Education
After the first cycle or four years of secondary school, students took exams and were awarded the certificate of the lower cycle of secondary study (brevet d'étude du premier cycle - BEPC). This qualification generally allowed them to continue at the collège or lycée, enter a teacher-training institution, or find an entry-level job in commerce or government. After the second cycle of three years of study, graduates earned the baccalauréat, which indicated a level of learning roughly equivalent to one or two years of university study in the United States. In Côte d'Ivoire, as in France, it qualified a student for university entrance.
[edit] Higher Education
The National University of Côte d'Ivoire, which was founded as the Center for Higher Education at Abidjan in 1959 and became the University of Abidjan in 1964, had an enrollment of 18,732 in 1987. Of this number, about 10,000 were Ivoirians and 3,200 were women. Still heavily dependent on French assistance, it included faculties of law, sciences, and letters and schools of agriculture, public works, administration, and fine arts. Other institutions of higher learning, known as grandes écoles, awarded certificates of training in specialized fields in cooperation with, but not as part of, the national university.
[edit] Children suffer in Ivory Coast conflict -Unicef
DAKAR, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's three-year conflict is depriving hundreds of thousands of children of their right to education leaving them vulnerable to abuse, the U.N. children's agency said on Tuesday.
The conflict has left an estimated 700,000 children without schools and an estimated 60,000 in the rebel-controlled north trapped in "educational limbo", unable to take part in national exams, UNICEF said.
The West African country has been split into a rebel north and a government-controlled south since a failed coup against President Laurent Gbagbo three years ago.
Hundreds of thousands of children were also being denied the right to birth registration because of the country's division, the U.N. agency said.
"This conflict has impacted the lives of everyone but especially those who are most vulnerable - the women and children," UNICEF Representative to Ivory Coast Youssouf Oomar said in a statement.
The breakdown of the family structure has left many children vulnerable to abuse, while a pervading military culture exposed them to violence and recruitment by armed groups.
With lawlessness rife, girls frequently became targets of sexual abuse and many young women had been forced into prostitution to support themselves. UNICEF noted reports of continued recruitment of child soldiers in western Ivory Coast near the border with Liberia -- which was riven by its own 14-year civil war until a 2003 peace agreement. It could not confirm these reports.
A series of peace deals in Ivory Coast have foundered and more than 10,000 U.N. and French peacekeepers man a porous buffer zone separating the two sides.
Presidential elections due last month were abandoned and the United Nations backed President Gbagbo to remain in office for another year to prepare the country -- the world's largest cocoa exporter -- for new polls.
Reuters Alert Net Alerting humanitarians to emergencies
[edit] The Katiali Project of the Cosmopolitan Club
This is why we, the Cosmopolitan Club, want to help. we believe in direct action. We cannot help all of those villages, but we can make a difference in Katiali NOW.
Our African Awareness Month flyer
[edit] Ressources
http://countrystudies.us/ivory-coast/
http://www2.unesco.org/wef/en-leadup/rmeet_afric_ivorycoast2.shtm
