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In the Central African Republic, 39% of students drop out of primary school. Many drop out due to the poor quality of education: the lack of infrastructure and qualified teachers makes it difficult for students to acquire the basic skills needed to advance to higher levels.
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A GPE-funded remedial education program helps keep children in school by providing low-performing students at risk of dropping out with additional instruction to strengthen their reading and math skills.
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This program takes place during school holidays and will benefit nearly 100,000 students from 480 public primary schools by 2025.
BOYALI VILLAGE, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC – Media OutReach Newswire – January 24, 2024 – The Central African Republic (CAR) is one of the poorest and most fragile countries in the world. Since its independence in 1960, the CAR has not experienced a period of lasting peace. In 2019, the government signed an agreement with armed groups that continues to provide a roadmap to long-term peace and stability, but violence and political tensions continue to wreak havoc among civilians, particularly on children and their education.
Students take part in a lesson at the Boyali 2 school in the village of Boyali, Central African Republic. (Eduardo Soteras/AP Images for Global Partnership for Education)
With a population of around 6.1 million, almost half are under the age of 14, but with limited resources, CAR’s funding for the education sector is less than 2% of GDP. There is not enough infrastructure to accommodate the growing student population, and the lack of qualified teachers makes it difficult to provide education that equips students with basic skills.
The poor quality of education results in high dropout rates – 47% for girls and 31% for boys at primary school level. The expected duration of schooling is 5.3 years for boys compared to 3.8 years for girls.
Despite the immense challenges facing the sector, the government
committed to education as a key driver of recovery, peacebuilding and economic development. The CAR’s current education plan demonstrates a strong political will to improve access and quality for all Central African children.
An intervention to keep children in school identifies low-performing students and offers them additional literacy and numeracy lessons to strengthen their basic skills. Teachers play a key role in identifying children who are unable to keep up with their peers and are therefore at risk of dropping out of school.
Student Naomi Bakeré rings a metal bell at recess time at Boyali 2 school in the village of Boyali, Central African Republic. (Eduardo Soteras/AP Images for Global Partnership for Education)
Naomi Bakeré, a 16-year-old student at Boyali 2 School, is one of 99,000 students receiving additional education under the GPE-supported remedial education program.
“I’m in remedial classes because I want to become a journalist. I have to speak languages well,” Naomi explained. “I’m taking the remedial course, so I will have a good level when I return to school.”
“The aim of these lessons is to help children, whether in reading or mathematics, increase their level of knowledge,” said Thierry Gbagama, a teacher who participated in GPE-supported training to help children to catch up with their friends. “I have a total of 50 students in my class. Naomie could not speak or write well, but she can now read quite well – she is one of the students who can read and write very well.”
The classes will take place during school holidays and are expected to benefit 99,000 students from 480 public primary schools by 2025. In April 2023, during the second term holidays, more than 21,800 students participated in the program, surpassing the initial objective. As of August 2023, approximately 46,800 students have participated in the program, with more expected to participate in December.
This was made possible thanks to a GPE grant of $31.6 million, implemented by the World Bank. This funding helps the Ministry of National Education increase access to quality education, with a focus on children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Visit globalpartnership.org to learn how GPE helps partner countries ensure all children receive a quality education.
Part of a multi-format production, images are available to subscribers on AP Newsroom – Search “GPE CAR 2023” – long text and additional media available at apmultimedianewsroom.com/GPE.
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