Preliminary visits to the village schools

French School—Meeting with the school director

·      98 total students, 52 girls and 47 boys

·      Since the beginning of the year, 3 have abandoned their studies. One kid, about 12 years old, said he wanted to focus on wrestling “career”.

·      Attendance is free, subsidized by the government; students must buy their own writing instruments and cahiers.

·      The school has 5 class levels; CI/CP and CE1/CE2 are combined.

·      There are 4 French teachers and 1 Arabic teacher, which is too few. The Senegalese  government is not recruiting enough teachers.

·      Class goes from 8-14 Monday through Thursday, 8-13 on Fridays. Saturdays and Sundays are off.

·      Apparently, they don’t follow the French curriculum, for lack of resources (science equipment, calculators…). The director isn’t sure, but he thinks that they’re following the Canadian curriculum.

·      Director wants electricity and photocopy machines. As of now, any material distributed to each individual student must be recopied by hand by the teachers.

·      The school has received donated pencils, cahiers, and books. But all of the books received are in English… and they don’t teach English at the school.

·      The director also said that students really struggle with the French. None of them speak it at home, and most don’t take the time to do their homework either.

·      The school has to compete with the Arabic school for student enrollment.

·      Children have to work in the fields during the rainy season alongside their parents. Many children are behind in their studies because of it.

Arabic School—Meeting with a teacher

·      360 students, 123 girls and 237 boys.

·      14 teachers

·      17 courses taught

·      Private school, entirely financed by student tuition and the teachers themselves

·      6,000-15,000 CFA each year. Upper classes (6ème-3ème) pay the highest fees. Entry exam into high school is called the BFEM.

·      Most students do continue their studies at an Arabic high school, and sometimes secure scholarships to go study in Saudi Arabia

·      Biggest challenge is financial hardship among students struggling to pay school fees.

·      Students are also required to buy their own pens and cahiers.

·      Teachers have to use most of the money from student fees to pay for school maintenance, building more buildings, etc. The rest of the money is split among the teachers. They only get 200,100 CFA per year, which is substantially less then what the French teachers get paid.

·      Class goes from 9-12 and 13-14 Saturday through Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are off.

·      Children come from many neighboring villages to attend this school.