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PROMOTING GIRLS’ SCHOOLING
The Government of Benin, USAID, along with other education partners,
are continuing to implement innovative programs to help educate communities
and teachers on the short and long-term value of girls’ education. USAID/Benin,
while supporting the Government of Benin’s efforts in reforming the primary
education system, puts an emphasis on girls’ access to quality education.
BENIN’S NATIONAL NETWORK FOR THE PROMOTION
OF GIRLS’ EDUCATION The Network was created in 1997 to increase access and equity under the education sector reform. Its main objective is to increase school enrollment of girls. The Network has contributed for the past few years to the improvement in girls' enrollment in primary schools from 73% in 2001 to 84% in 2004, with implementation of activities in 19 communes at the national level.
The Network’s uniqueness is to bring together the public and private
sector as well as international partners for national development.
For the future, its new challenges will be to:
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Increase school enrollment, especially for girls, in a sustainable and equitable
manner
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Improve retention and success of girls at school
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Enhance the capacities of participating community organizations for community
mobilization
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Ensure a coordination role of all partners intervening in the promotion of girls' education at the national level.
A program was developed consisting of many activities to reach those objectives. The Network is currently working with three local NGOs for girls' education promotion and is benefiting from a USAID Education project called EQUIPE. Beninese society needs to consider gender issues, girls' roles in rural areas, and their future.
PROMOTING COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN BASIC EDUCATION
| Through a grant awarded to CARE International, the "Promoting Communities Participation in Basic Education" (PROBASE) project, implemented in two communes in northeast Benin, have targeted 94 public primary schools in the communes of Gogounou and Kalalé. Emphasis has been placed on teaching practices, as well as on peer tutoring where, under the supervision of a teacher, the strongest students are paired with those experiencing some difficulties in learning. |
Peer Tutoring Activity in KALALE |
COMMUNITY ACTION FOR GIRLS’ EDUCATION
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The success of a child in school rests upon three pillars of overlapping and, arguably, equal importance: the classroom, the school and the education system, and the home and broader community. |
Started in June 2001, the CAGE Project, implemented by World Learning, a U.S. private voluntary organization, has implemented in the field and among communities an innovative program. Its objective is to use non-school interventions to address girls' schooling issues in 91 communities from 8 Beninese communes where girls' enrollment is very low. Capitalizing on the fact that many communities have already benefited from awareness campaigns and other actions to promote girls' schooling, the project invites parents and communities into the program, helping them become leaders in the drive to enroll more girls in schools and reduce the girls' dropout rate. Essentially, communities will become proactive partners in analyzing the obstacles to their daughters' school completion, obstacles, and in articulating and implementing solutions to these obstacles.
While working on their own to achieve the same results, and in order not to duplicate efforts, grantees are urged by USAID to work in close collaboration with local school administration.
USAID/Benin Mission Director planting the "tree of girls' schooling" in the commune of KARIMAMA, in northen Benin. |
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