Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
66
it has not been left behind as has been observed in many other countries”.214 Nonetheless Fig. 1
shows the large gaps between the GERs of primary school, lower secondary and upper secondary.
This suggests that large numbers of students may drop-out at the end of each education cycle.
Worsening trends215: The repetition rate in the lower secondary averaged a steady increase from
16.4% in 2012 to 21.6% in 2014. The drop-out rate also increased between 2012 and 2014 from
9.1% to 10.2%, and the pass rate for the examination of the Medium-term Study Certificate
(BFEM) saw a decrease between 2012 and 2015 from 59.6% to 43.2 %. At the (upper) secondary
level, the repetition rate increased steadily between 2012 and 2014 from 19.5% to 23.1%. It is
higher in girls (23.5%) than in boys (22.7%) in 2014.
Determinants of Access to Schooling216
Similarly to other OIC countries and global trends, the disparities in access to education in
Senegal are linked to income poverty, rural areas, geographical location, gender, disability,
language and minority. However, Fig.5 and Fig.8 (Chapter 2) show that Senegal is experiencing
higher than OIC average disparities in net attendance rates between poorest/richest wealth
quintiles and between urban/rural populations.
Low access is also linked to deficiencies in learning processes, problems with the devolution and
decentralization processes, weak coordination between public/private and non-profit sectors,
inadequate budget efficiencies, uneven distribution of population, and religious background in
some of the districts with lowest access to school.
Using DHS data, this section will provide an overview of the main determinants of access to
education and how indicators and correlates have evolved between 2005 and 2015217 . It is worth
noting that many of the indicators/determinants are often inter-related with one another, for
example poorer households are more likely to be living in rural areas and have a head of
household with no education.
Attendance Rates: In 2015, in spite of relatively high Gross Enrolment Rates (section 1.3),
attendance rates for 6-11 year olds and 12-15 year olds remain low at 54.9% and 63.5%
respectively.218 The latter have increased since 2005 but attendance rates for 6-11 years old have
remained largely stagnant over the last 10 years (according to the analysis comparing DHS 2005
with DHS 2015).
214 World Bank (2013) Senegal – Quality Improvement and Equity of Basic Education Project
215 Online “Profile: Senegal” (2015) Education, UNESCO Regional Office - Dakar
216 Based on 2005 and 2015 DHS data analysis
217 In 2008 a few new regions were introduced and as such some of the 2015 data actually covers additional regions (for eg
Kaolack has been divided in Kaolack and Kaffrine. In our graphs, the 2015 ‘Kaolack’ region covers the data for both Kaffrine and
the new Kaolack, the 2005 Kaolack is the old/undivided region pre-2008)
218 These rates are obtained through authors’ micro data analysis using DHS 2015 for Senegal