Recent education planning initiatives inWest and Central Africa show that the path to EFA may beshortened considerably by reconsidering the way basiceducation is delivered in isolated rural communities. Sinceindependence, education systems have been expanding rapidlyand are now serving most of the easy-to-reach population.For progress to continue, the focus must be shifted towardthe sparsely populated areas, which means adjusting the typeof schools used, and building them close to where childrenlive. Most out-of-school children live in rural areas.Unfortunately, few rural schools offer the complete primarycycle. A number of factors contribute to theincomplete-cycle phenomenon. The most significant is thatthe potential student population is insufficient for athree- or six-teacher school. Having children walk to schoolfrom neighboring villages also contributes to low enrollmentand low student-teacher ratios. Since teachers generally donot teach more than 1 or 2 grades at a time in a classroom,rural communities usually have low student-teacher ratios,and education system administrators cannot justify sendingadditional teachers to the school. In addition, schools withincomplete cycles tend to have extremely low survival rates.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
