Nonformal Education in Francophone West Africa : a Case Study of the Senegalese Experience of Community-Based Schools
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-2004 Nonformal education in francophone West Africa : a case study of the Senegalese experience of community-based schools. Mbarou, Gassama-Mbaye University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Gassama-Mbaye, Mbarou,, "Nonformal education in francophone West Africa : a case study of the Senegalese experience of community-based schools." (2004). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2372. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2372 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NONFORMAL EDUCATION IN FRANCOPHONE WEST AFRICA: TUDY OF A CASF THE SENEGALESE EXPERIENCE OF COMMUNITY-BASED SCHOOLS A Dissertation Presented by MBAROU GASSAMA-MBAYE Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION May 2004 School of Education Copyright by Mbarou Gassama-Mbaye 2004 All Rights Reserved SCHOOLS A Dissertation Presented by MBAROU GASSAMA-MBAYE Approved as to style and content by: oVCAAAyU Kathryn Md^ermott, Member jqJmJ. A_ Ralph Faulkingham, Member School of Education dedication my m0lher Adja Marie Ndia^e “d *e memory of my father Mamadou Gassama 1 o my husband El Hadj Ahmadou Mbaye and my children Marne Marye, Abdou Aziz, Yaye Kene, Ibrahima and Abass for all your love and support ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My profound gratitude to Professor David Evans, my advisor for his intellectual gu, dance and moral support during my years at the Center for International Education; to Professors Kathryn McDermott, Alfred S. Hartwell, and Leonee Ndikumana for their thoughtful advices; to Professor Ralph Faulkingham for agreeing to be part of my committee at the last minute despite his busy schedule. I am also grateful to Professor Gretchen Rossman for her academic advices and moral support that empowers me as a woman, to Barbara Gravin Wilbur and to all my colleagues and friends at Center for International Education. I am also thankful to Housing Services that provides me with an assistantship for two years. I am grateful to Plan Senegal for its cooperation and logistical support during my visits in villages, I extend this appreciation to officers at the Ministry of National Education, the Delegate Ministry of Technical Education, Professional Training. Literacy and National Languages, to ADEF/Afrique, Aide et Action NGOs officers, to Father Ferran Sans, GIE Dem Ngalam, to operateurs, teachers, students, and parents who participated in the study. I am mostly and deeply grateful to my husband El Hadj Mbaye for his patience, support, understanding and love. ABSTRACT NONFORMAL EDUCATION IN FRANCOPHONE WEST AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF THE SENEGALESE EXPERIENCE OF COMMUNITY-BASED SCHOOLS MAY 2004 MBAROU GASSAMA-MBAYE, B.A., UNIVERSITY MOHAMED V M.A., AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING Ed.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor David R. Evans The study reviews the history of education in Francophone West Africa from the post-colonial era to the current period. It gives primary attention to the conflicting goals of formal and Islamic education, the place of nonformal education during colonial period and looks at the attitude of policymakers towards nonformal education after independence. Furthermore, it examines the role of international partners of development, the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and bilateral cooperation in shaping education policies in Third World countries; presents the background of the Education for All (EFA) movement, its goals, and rationale; and analyzes the Fast-Track Initiative (FTI). the place of nonformal education in the movement, and its implications in Third World education policies. The study focuses on the Senegalese experience. After presenting the education system and the strategies of the government to achieve Education for All in 2015. the author, drawing on field research using interviews, focus groups, surveys, and observations, describes different models of community-based schools and contrasts VI government and NGO schools. The study analyzes the attitudes of patents, students, and teachers, officials of the Mimstry of National Education, the Delegate Ministry of Professional Traimng, Vocational Education, Literacy and National Languages and NGOs towards community-based schools and ratses the issues of girls’ education, religtous education, and teacher’ training. A, the end. the author highlights the challenges that community-based schools face and provides recommendations for the state, communities, and school administrations to improve access and to assure the relevance of education to local populations. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Page v ABSTRACT vi LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xi INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 • 1 HE PROBLEM: FORMAL AND NONFORMAL EDUCATION General definitions .... 5 Relationships between formal and nonformal education .. 10 formal/ nonformal education: community schools in Africa .. 14 Community-based schools in Senegal .. 16 2. METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH ..20 Significance of the study ..20 Purpose of the study ..20 Research questions ..21 Research design: mixed method ..24 Limitations of the study ..43 Ethical issues ..44 3. HIS I ORY OF EDUCATION IN FRANCOPHONE WEST AFRICA ..46 Pre-colonial period .. 46 Colonial period (1600-1960) ..51 Post-colonial education (1960- 1990’s) ..69 4. NONFORMAL EDUCATION AND THE EFA MOVEMENT ..80 Presentation ot the EFA movement ..80 Critiques of EFA goals ..89 Challenges to EFA ,.94 5. COMMUNITY-BASED SCHOOLS IN SENEGAL 103 Hie Senegalese education system 103 Community-based schools as a solution 110 6. ATTITUDES TOWARD COMMUNITY-BASED SCHOOLS 145 Attitudes of parents 145 viii . Attitudes of students ... 159 Attitudes of teachers Attitudes of operateursfNGOs ... 166 ... 169 Attitude of the state ... 176 7 . IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS AND RE^COMMENDATIONS ... 182 Internal challenges .. ... 183 External challenges ... 191 8 . LESSONS LEARNED AND CONCLUSION... 198 BIBLIOGRAPHY 202 IX LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Comparative categories Formal/ nonformal education .... 13 2. Mapping of community schools in Africa .... 15 3. Sample of schools and students ....30 4. Distribution of grade levels ....30 5. Summary of participants and schools ....31 6. Community-based schools and equivalency with formal schools .. ..114 7. Summary of the description of schools and teachers .. 122 8. Household Arts students' level of education . 126 9. Parents' level of education . 147 10. Parents' level of income . 147 1 1 . Attitudes ol parents toward the community-based school . 149 12. Parents' preferred subjects . 151 1 o. 1 he pieterred subjects for the School Management Committee... 152 14. Importance of the manual work for the SMC . 153 15. Students rationale lor the choice of the community-based school . 162 16. Students' preferred subjects . 163 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Research question and research design ...23 2. Summary of the research process ...26 3. Colonial formal education in French West Africa 1900-1918 ...55 4. Design of the description of community-based schools .118 5. Histogramme of students' population . 161 XI introduction Nonformal education was developed in Third World countries in the 1970' to face the increasing demand for formal education, the limitation of the state resources, and the lack of adaptation of formal school graduates to development needs. Nonformal education becomes an important tssue in a situation where most people are illiterate and when all sectors of development are priorities: health, education, agriculture, industry etc. because of the urgent need to promote critical sectors of development. The state has asked communities, NGOs, associations, etc (generally non-traditional partners of formal schools) to support the education system and has encouraged communities to take responsibility for their schools. Many community schools were created in this context. 1 heorists of alternative education believe that the role of the community school is to promote awareness about community issues and connect the school to local realities. From the functionalist perspective, the community school is a complement to the network ot formal schools, its main goal being increase access, by establishing schools in locations that the government cannot reach. In piactice, formal and nonformal education approaches have been combined .in community schools to provide education to underserved children in developiim countries with a focus on learning outcomes. Escuela Nueva is an example of a nonformal community school model, implemented in rural Colombia that has been expanded to more than ten Latin American countries. Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is another example of community schools that were implemented in thousands of villages in rural and poor urban areas in Bangladesh, (Farrell, 2003). Upper Egypt, another example of community schools contributed to bringing schools into reststant Muslim communities, and increasing girls’ enrollment in school. These models have brought community issues into the school, used local