Senegal Education Profile 2012

The Senegalese education system is based on its French equivalent. Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution adopted in January 2001 guarantee access to education for amount children.

However, due to limited resources and low request for secular education in areas where Islamic education is additional prevalent, the law is not fully enforced. A lot of families send their children to private schools

Primary and Secondary Education
Education is required and free up to the age of 16. In 2002, the gross primary conscription rate was 80% ,and the net primary conscription rate was 69%. Gross and net enrolments ratios are based on the number of students officially registered in primary school and as a result do not necessarily be a sign of actual school audience. In 2000, 41.2% of children ages 5 to 14 years were attending school. Primary school attendance statistics are not available for Senegal. As of 2001, 80% of children who started primary school were likely to reach grade 5.

The Ministry of Labor has indicated that the public school system is not capable to cope with the number of children that must enroll each year.As a result, a lot of school-aged children seek to obtain education and training through additional informal means.

A large number apprentice themselves to a shop, where they receive no wages government official estimated there are 100,000 children apprenticed in Dakar.The ANSD[clarification needed] reports that as of 2001, 32.5% of children aged 10–14 had begun their professional lives.

The Senegalese education sector has long been seen as a priority, similar to the French system. Cooperation agreements with France have made it possible to have equivalent diplomas of the major concerns of the country’s education policy is the achievement of a high quality universal schooling by 2008. In this regard, the national has implemented a programme for the building of school infrastructures, and has devoted 35% of its budget to education.
As far as education and training are concerned, the national has implemented a policy – (PDEF 1998-2008) for an effective achievement of the following strategies:

• battle against illiteracy
• mastering of the flows in secondary and higher education
• restructuration of technical and vocational training
• bridging of the gaps on the educational map
• provision of higher quality teaching and training
• improving the management of the educational sector, with a better assessment of basic needs and specificities
• democratisation of preschool education
• improved access to secondary education
• adaptation of higher education to the market needs
• extended use of the new data and communication technologies

Generally speaking, education includes notions:

• instruction
• literacy

Formal education

Instruction, which is part and parcel of formal education is a process including various steps, ranging from preschool education to higher education.
As far as higher education is concerned, Senegal has another university in addition to the Dakar Cheikh Anta Diop University; this university, Gaston Berger University, is located in Saint-Louis.

There are as well other private universities:

• Tthe Dakar Bourguiba University
• The University of Sahel
• Suffolk University

Senegal as well has a number of higher education schools and institutions:

• The Ecole supérieure de Commerce de Dakar (Sup de co) (a Business school)
• Institut Supérieur de management (ISM) (a Business school)
• The Dakar-based Ecole supérieure multinationale de Télécommunication (ESMT) (The Higher Multinational Telecommunications School of Dakar)
• Ecole supérieure Polytechnique (Higher polytechnic school)
• Hautes études Canadiennes et internationales (HECI) (Higher School of Canadian and International Studies)
• Institut Panafricain de Marketing (IPAM) (Pan-African Marketing Institute)
• Centre africain d’études supérieures en Gestion (CESAG) (African Centre for Higher Studies in Business Management)
• Ecole internationale des affaires (EIA)…(International Business school)

Non-formal education

Literacy being considered a priority, the Senegalese government has implemented a strategy of basic education for children between 9 and 14 years old and a functional literacy programme for those aged between 15 and 55 years.

This programme is open to various initiatives: NGOs, development institutions and organisations, inclunding cultural associations and some ministries.

Basic community schools: These are attended by children aged between 9 and 14 years old, who have not from now on been to school or who have dropped out of school at an early stage. They receive basic practical and pre-professional education in national languages and French. The education cycle in those schools is years.

Third type of schools : These include other non-standard schools, such as street schools, managed by non-formal and non-standardised organisations, which are monitored by the education system.

There have been some tangible results in the social area, but they have not met expectations. The adult literacy rate progressed from 39% in 2002 to 45% in 2009. Nonetheless, out of the 40% of the national budget assigned to education, the national only allocates 0.23% for the eradication of illiteracy.

Significant evolution has been made towards reaching Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the field of education, but insufficiencies have been observed in the area of public health. The education and training programme, PDEF (Programme décennal de l’éducation et de la formation), that has been in force for additional than ten years has greatly contributed to multiplying investments in education. The gross enrolment rate, which stood at 80% in 2008, went up to 90% in 2009 and even to nearly 95% if Arabic language teaching is included.