Part 2: Education

Part Two: The Education System in Niger
This is a tricky subject to write about. There are good things going on, but…. Well, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s start from the beginning.
Like most everything else, Niger inherited its education system from the French. Education is free and the first six years are compulsory. There are two ministries which oversee the system, one each for the primary and secondary levels. Primary consisting of the first six years of school. Primary schools are pretty well represented throughout the country, but are by no means everywhere where they need to be. Secondary education includes college (middle school) and lycee (high school), as well as the university in Niamey. Secondary schools, especially the lycees, are clustered in the larger towns and cities.
Between each stage of school (i.e. primary to college, college to lycee, lycee to university) there are tests. Students failing the test do not advance and must repeat the school year. However, the catch is that you can only repeat once, then you’re out of school. No pressure for those tests eh? The stats are pretty sad, something like 28% of children who start school finish. Only 9% of boys and 6% of girls attend the lycee (high school) level. Literacy in Niger is also somewhere in the basement region, 30% for men and 11% for women. Clearly there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
Two major problems affecting education rates: One, this is a poor country with little capital to invest, and two, cultural attitudes toward education, especially of women, though this is also a factor of economic stress. Let me start with the first point.As I said earlier, education is free and compulsory in Niger. Both of these points should be taken in perspective though. First off, going into a school building, having a seat and your name in a grade book is free, but school supplies like pencils, paper, even text books in many places have to be supplied by the family of the student. When you’re living harvest to harvest, finding the money to pay for these non-essentials can be near impossible. Furthermore, and this plays into the cultural perception point, if a family can find the money they may often only have enough to send some of their children to school, which translates into boys first, because boys stay in the family and need to contribute, but a girl is out and married soon, besides what type of education do you need to raise kids and do housework? Well, you need to help raise kids and do chores at home instead of going to a school.
As for the compulsory point, it’s one thing for a parent to not send their child to school if the village has a primary school. Almost half the boys and a third of the girls attend primary school, or at least some of it. This is due to the fact that these schools can often be found out in the bush. By the time these students reach the college level (middle school), they may have to travel many miles to find a school. For example, Gaya has three public colleges and two private. There are the only colleges for this region. That means it can be 70km from home to the college here or Dosso, the next nearest town with schools. Furthermore, the roads here are not very easy to travel. There is no public transportation. Bush taxis are the only option and they are slow and unreliable. There is no way to commute from home to school. This is true not only for college and lycee, but in many places the closest primary school may be 10km or so. Remember this is a country bigger than California and Texas together. There is a lot of ground to cover out here.
These faults in the system are economically related. I’m not saying people don’t care about these kids, but it’s a fact that education is becoming even more fiscally challenging. Text books and school supplies were supplied to children not five years ago, but with the state of the Nigerienne economy the government had to cut back. They are in a process of dencentralisation now, which further intensifies economic minimalism for the education system and has led to a dramatic rise in the number of private schools which offer a better education, but for much much more money. Much like in the US, there has become a duel system of education; one for those who can pay or happen to live in an area with schools and one for those who can’t pay or live without access to good schools.
This all seems pretty negative I know (and I haven’t even talked about teachers who teach without having graduated college and have a few weeks of job training….), however, there are some bright spots. The enrollment of girls is up. So are the literacy rates. In fact if you compare literacy of adults to children, you would see something like nearly ten percentage points more in the youth side (25% to 36% I think… all these stats are from old UNICEF sources dated to 2003 or so). The government is really pursuing the increase in female education. Each inspection is funded to have a position just for promoting girls education. But, all the factors above play into that.
So what can I do? Well, I’m not going to change the world. I want to start a program or programs to help children obtain school supplies. There are some NGOs in town I’m going to talk to. Maybe I can get them hooked up with NGOs in the US. Second, and this is the major accomplishment I would like to pursue over the next two years, I would like to start something like a boarding house for kids (maybe just young girls) from the bush who would like to continue their education but geographic and economic factors make that impossible. Find a place in Gaya, team with an NGO who will run it after I’m gone and find a continuing source of funding….. I’m not saying this is gonna be my thing for sure but it’s a thought, my best thought at the moment. Ok, enough for now, I’m sure ya’ll hear about that as it progresses.