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Education in Senegal
Maryam Muhammad
GCU 114 summer 2015
Arizona State University

Education is the key to success. The education system worldwide has many
inequalities. The United Nations has developed the Global Education First Initiative that
has three main priorities that can help combat the worldwide education inequalities.
These priorities are that every child should be in school, every child should have a
quality learning experience, and every child should foster global citizenship. This report
will focus on the status of education in Senegal, West Africa.

Primary school enrollment in Senegal has increased from 80.5% in the year 2005 to
83.6% in the year 2014 (Data.worldbank.org, 2015). The primary school enrollment has
been slowly increasing
over the last nine years.
That is a good sign
compared to other subSaharan African
countries. Senegals
constitution articles 21 and 22, adopted in January 2001, guarantee access to
education for all children; however, due to limited resources and low demand for
secular-education in areas where Islamic education is more prevalent, the laws are not
fully enforced; thus many families send their children to private schools
(Educationincrisis.net, 2013). Senegals percentage is most likely high do to the
constitutional rights in order for all children.

Senegal has a variety of schooling from public to private. The Senegalese

education system differentiates between formal and informal sectors. Formal education
covers many levels and types of education. It is consist of preschool education,
elementary education, secondary education and general secondary education, technical
education and vocational training and higher education. At each level, there is public
education and private education, which has greatly diversified and developed in recent
years (Education.gouv.sn, 2010).
Many people will pay and send their children to private schools due to the
barriers that the public education endures. Overall, public education in Senegal does
not have enough resources to guarantee a high quality educational experience. There
are times when the teachers arent paid and they go on strike. Lack of funding has
indeed not allowed schools to have appropriate infrastructure, educational inputs quality
and qualified teachers in sufficient numbers. In Senegal, this tradeoff between quantity
and quality is explained this way by a framework of education (Niang, 2014). That is a
huge reason why so many people send their children to private school if they can afford
it. The ability for every child to have a quality learning experience is not always
consistent in many public schools in Senegal.
Senegal progresses in achieving universal access to education for children is
impressive but it is not over yet. More has to be done to reach a 100% primary school
enrollment percentage in the country. The government must invest more funding to the
education in the country. Once funding increases and used in the right places the state
of public education in Senegal will increase and be just as good as the private schools.

References
Data.worldbank.org,. (2015). School enrollment, primary (% gross) | Data | Graph.
Retrieved 30 July 2015, from
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.ENRR/countries/SN-ZF-XN?
display=graph
Education.gouv.sn,. (2010). Ministre de l'Education Nationale | Le systme ducatif.
Retrieved 30 July 2015, from http://www.education.gouv.sn/rootfr/files/systeme_educatif.php
Educationincrisis.net,. (2013). Senegal - From crisis to opportunity. Retrieved 29 July
2015, from http://www.educationincrisis.net/country-profiles/africa/item/547-senegal
Globaleducationfirst.org,. (2015). UN Global Education First Initiative United
Nations Secretary Generals Global Initiative on Education 3. Global
citizenship. Retrieved 29 July 2015, from
http://www.globaleducationfirst.org/220.htm
Niang, F. (2014). Lcole primaire au Sngal: ducation pour tous, qualit pour
certains. Cahiers De La Recherche Sur L education Et Les Savoirs, (13), 239261. Retrieved from http://cres.revues.org/2665