Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:

The Key to Escape from Poverty

Figure 23 Gross Enrolment Rates 2000-2015

Note: UNESCO Institute of Statistics

The so-called “alternative systems” constitute an offer of education and training which compete

with demand for formal school (see section 3.1). The government of Senegal considers children

enrolled in non-formal and informal education system as ‘out-of-school’.

Improving Enrolment Rates (UNESCO and Administrative data).

Fig.2 (Chapter 2) shows that Senegal’s Net Primary Enrolment Rate has improved significantly

during 1990s-2010s and is currently around the average for low-income OIC countries, while

performing better than lower-middle-income Nigeria.

Based on administrative data

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, the primary level overall Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) has grown

from 67.2% in 2000 to 89.4% in 2015 with a downward trend between 2007 (86.2%) and 2015.

The network of schools increased by 53.5% from 2004 to 2014, which contributed to improved

access rates. In terms of quality/performance, Senegal improved the learning environment by

reducing pupil/teacher ratio and reaching one of the lowest pupil/teacher ratios (at the primary

level) in the region with 31.3 students per teacher. The primary completion rate has grown

slightly (going from 60.1% in 2012 to 60.3% in 2013) suggesting a positive development of this

indicator. The lower secondary Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) averaged 54.6.0% to 58.4% between

2012 and 2015 and is higher for girls (61.7%) than for boys (55.2%) in 2015. Whereas for upper

secondary education, the gross enrolment ratio increased steadily between 2012 and 2015, from

25.9% to 33.2%. “Senegal has always had a sector approach to education meaning that although

secondary education has not benefited from the same level of investment as primary education,

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Rapport des indicateurs rétropolés (2002 à 2015) DPRE/MEN (obtained from Ministry of National Education)

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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Gross enrolment ratio (%)

Primary

Lower secondary

Upper secondary