Le Sentimental Education

The education system here has confused me for months and I hope I am able to explain it to you all. There are still some facets that totally elude me still.

Education in Burkina favors males, and those in urban areas with access to secondary schools. Literacy rates stand at 12.8% for people 15 years old and above (almost 13% of 14 million people is NOT A LOT). For women this is 8.1%, for men 18.5%. Since 94% of the population of Burkina Faso lives en brouss in remote villages. Only about 1/3 of seven year olds attend primary school in the country and it is even fewer in rural areas. About 10% of the population makes it to secondary school (junior high and high school).

The educational system is based on the French model. Therefore mastery of French largely determines one’s success because all instruction is in French. Since young children starting school have no French background, they do not understand or learn well. Imagine if in the United States if after speaking English with your parents at home if you are 6 years old and all of a sudden have to go to school where the only language that is spoken/taught is Chinese.

Much of the primary school education is solely on the learning and understanding of the French language. Parents do not enforce studying and many children cannot even study at home because there are no lights to study by at night. Most kids repeat years because they are not able to pass their exams due to the lack of preparation, absence, and that they do not study outside of school. After 3 times of repeating a year a student is no longer allowed to continue their education.

Elementary School lasts six years; secondary school has seven years. Here is a rough diagram of the grade levels for a Burkinabe student.


Primary Education
Cours preparatoire 1
Cours preparatoire 2
Cours elementaire 1
Cours elementaire 2
Cours moyen 1
Cours moyen 2
CEP Exam

Some things to note though about the CEP exam: A Burkinabe is not eligible to take the exam if they do not have a birth certificate. Many Burkinabe do not know their birthdays or ages, more prevalent in the older generations, even friends my own age. Here Birth Certificates cost 700 CFA ($1.50) the first 5 years of a child’s life. After that they increase in price to 2000 CFA ($4.50). Many Burkinabe do not know about a birth certificate or they do not have the money or the means to get one in village.

Classes can be extremely large. In primary school there can be 40+ students and when they get up to secondary school they could be in the upwards of 100 students in a classroom. Imagine trying to learn a high school lesson with another 100 kids, distracting much?

On top of that there is also an age limit for taking the CEP Exam, a person cannot take the exam after the age of 16.

After you take your CEP Exam and you pass you can continue on to Secondary schooling. The government pays the school fees for primary education but after that a student and the family are responsible to pay for a student to go on to secondary school.

Even after taking the CEP Exam a secondary school might be 80km away from their village. Most secondary schools are in larger cities and most families can only afford to send one child onto secondary school. The student will be shipped off during the school year to live with relatives near a secondary school. Since there are very few secondary schools there is not enough space to accommodate students wanting to go to secondary school. As I mentioned before a student has to buy everything. Example Prices are below next to the year.

“Junior High” / Secondary School Levels:
Sixieme (15,000-18,000)
Cinquieme
Quatrieme
Troisieme (24,000 – 100,000)
BEPC Exam

The BEPC Exam means that a Burkinabe has passed almost the equivalent of junior high for the United States. Many of my BEPC students (troisieme) range in ages from 16-26 years old. If you have a BEPC you can become a primary school teacher and lower level government agents (Functionaries).

After a student takes the BEPC they have the option again to continue to go to school for another 3 years and then take the BAC. There are two tracks a student can take for their BAC. A technical BAC for those that want to do engineering for example or computers, and then there is a general BAC. The BAC is accepted internationally and in the states it would be if a student took International Baccalaureate (IB) credits in high school.

“High School”/ Continuation of Secondary Levels:
2 e
1 ere
Terminal
BAC (General or Technique)

Those Burkinabe that take the BAC and pass are very respected and normally become functionaires and work for the government or go to University. The normal age for a student taking the BAC exam (somewhat equivalent but harder then a high school degree) range from 21-36 years old.

The exams given are 95% memorization and there is not much individual thought or creative analysis in the students work. The students are also beholden to outside sources for books and study materials. Which means that they have to search and pay for their own study materials. Most of these things can only be bought in Ouaga or Bobo.

Burkinabe that have taken the BEPC or the BAC are highly respected and there are “rights” because they have taken the exam. Persons with University degrees are revered but most people with University degrees stay in the larger cities and do not head back to live in the villages because there are no jobs for them there.

Quite a daunting thing to overcome and allow for your country to become developed I would say and I have not even talked about the importance of Girls’ Education. I will save that topic for a future blog, maybe for August when I conduct my girls’ camp!!!