Education Reconsidered in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is located in the heart of West Africa. The country counts 9 million inhabitants and covers an area of 274,000 square kms. The vast majority of the population (80% ) is illiterate. Because this it is inhibiting the country's development efforts, the government is intent on reforming the education system and has embarked on a number of literacy campaigns over the past ten years. Efforts have focused on functional literacy because the government considers that "reading, writing, and arithmetic are meaningful only if they serve as tools for information, communication, management, and for social and economic advancement."
Of the countries of subSaharan Africa, Burkina Faso has among the highest illiteracy rates and the lowest enrolment ratios (1). The education system consists of a formal and a non formal sector. Formal schools enrol only 18% of school-age children and are not adapted to the needs of the population. The nonformal sector has not yet won respect despite convincing results.
This critical situation has caused the government to reconsider the entire education system of the country while embarking on a radical process to transform basic education.
A Ministry for Basic Education and Literacy
In 1988, the government created the Ministry for Basic Education and Literacy (MEBAM). Its objective is to implement a system for basic education which will "provide every citizen with the fundamentals of education based on the country's needs and potential" and "educate citizens so that they can play an enlightened and effective role in their development and the development of the community" [seminar in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, 1989]. Furthermore, one of the goals of the MEBAM is to ensure greater integration of the formal and nonformal sectors. This new concept of basic education applies both to the formal sector —which is undergoing thorough examination and revision—and to nonformal basic education centers and adult literacy programs.
Adult literacy campaigns
Burkina Faso has conducted several literacy campaigns in the past decade. These have boosted adult literacy from 16% in 1990 to about 20% in 1995.
From the outset, programs were designed for functional literacy. Hence, curriculas have focused on accounting, the management of village enterprises such as cereal banks, grain mills, and village pharmacies. The 1995 massive literacy campaigns dubbed `Operation Commando' were clearly aimed at "providing management skills to heads of villages through selective, functional literacy" (2). The ultimate goal was management training. Literacy acquisition was considered as a means rather than an end. The emphasis on functional literacy was taken up in the slogan "No jobless neoliterates".
From 1990, Burkina Faso adopted a new strategy. Permanent Training and Literacy Centres (CPAF) were created. The proximity of the training centres to the learners' homes drastically cut to one fifth the cost of instruction without impairing the effectiveness of the training.
The social and economic impact
The social and economic impact of newly acquired literacy and numeracy on people's lives was measured in a survey conducted in 1991 by the Burkina Faso Literacy Institute (INA). Findings of the survey are the following:
• one third of those surveyed now hold positions within development units and structures;
• the role of neoliterates is important within these economic units: recordskeeping in the cereal banks, grain mills, village pharmacies, etc.;
• the attitudes of the neoliterates were perceived as socially positive by the surveyors even if those concerned were not always aware of this;
• it is considered that literacy increases receptiveness to messages such as massmedia awareness campaigns.
Another positive feature should be highlighted: literacy promotes national languages. In 1966, literacy programs were conducted in three languages (Mori, Dyula, and Casena). By the time of the `commando' campaigns in 1985, 11 languages were used. Today, literacy campaigns are conducted in 20 national languages.
Shortcomings
Despite the progress made, a number of shortcomings should be pointed out:
• the lack of coordination of literacy activities due to the large numbers of actors involved, inadequate logistics, the insufficient number of qualified personnel for data collection and analysis to ensure systematic assessment of the programs;
• the inadequate participation of women who are held back by housework chores, pregnancy, and the reluctance of husbands;
• a limited number of trained and qualified people for postliteracy training;
• the lack of integration between the formal and nonformal systems despite the establishment of the MEBAM.
New projects
These deficiencies have led the government to institute two new projects:
- The NonFormal Basic Education Center Project (CEBNF)
CEBNF centers are primarily for an increasing number of 9-15 years old children who are increasingly enroling in the Permanent Training and Literacy Centres (CPAF) even though they were originally designed for older people aged 15-50 years. CEBNF centers will also be developed in localities which do not have formal schools so that children aged 7 to 9 years may follow at least three years of schooling.
- The Zanu(3) program
Operation Zanu, intended to reach 8103 villages, is a vast community program promoting local development through functional literacy. The involvement of community development leaders is one innovative feature of the operation. Not only are such leaders in charge of training, they also act as motivators and coordinators. They are expected to be "driving forces for development". They must gear their work to local priorities and must at all times be aware of the situation of the community in terms of education, the economic status and the social environment.
Reforming formal education
The current revision of curricula, the use of double shift and multigrade systems, the creation of satellite schools and the use of national languages in education should all contribute to the quality, relevance, and expansion of the system.
These innovations have been endorsed and advocated by the national forum on education (Etats Généraux de l'Education) held in Ouagadougou September 5-10, 1994. The general legislation for the reform of education (Loi d'orientation du système éducatif) was adopted by the Assembly of Deputies on May 9, 1996.
Nonformal and formal education should not ignore each other and develop separately. A broader view of education is needed, encompassing traditional and modern, formal, nonformal and informal, secular and religious instruction. The government must work to gradually integrate the different subsystems. An educational minimum needs to be defined that will constitute "the common core" for all basic education provided.
The country's basic education should draw on Burkina Faso's multiple educational experiences: traditional or precolonial education, formal, nonformal and informal systems. It should: a) fill the gaps of traditional education; b) include the advantages of traditional education; c) correct the errors and deficiencies of the established system; and d) introduce new elements which take the current level of development of society into account.
The introduction of African languages as languages of instruction is one of the key elements for the reform of the formal sector. Another essential element is the introduction of productive work, which will enhance schools' practical function.
Basic education is not only a matter of equal rights. It is the only means of escaping underdevelopment. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are meaningful only if they serve as tools for communication, management, and social and economic advancement. The skills learned must be immediately put to use in work and in everyday life. Literacy training and postliteracy work cannot be separated. Literacy efforts should be part of the development process.
Based on a presentation given by
Anatole Niameogo,
Director of the National Literacy Institute
(Institut National d'alphabétisation),
Ministry of Basic Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso,
Consultation Meeting with partners for development, 25 February 1995,
Ouagadougou.
Footnotes
(1) Primary gross enrolment ratio:
38% (1993). Secondary gross enrolment ratio: 8.4% (1992). Illiteracy rate: 80% (1995).
(2) The title of the report from the first evaluation seminar in Kaboince (2728 May, 1986) was "Formation et gestion des responsables de groupements villageois s'appuyant sur une alphabétisation sélective et fonctionnelle".
(3) In the Dagara language, "Zanu" means "learning".
![[ADEA logo]](../../pics/top_main.gif)
![[Table]](../../pics/top_right.gif)
![[ADEA Newsletter Image]](../../pics/newsletter.jpg)
back a page