Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:

The Key to Escape from Poverty

Figure 32 Percentage of students going to preschool

Students at the beginning of the

primary cycle

Students at the end of the primary cycle

Note: CONFEMEN (2014)

Education Financing

High investments:

In terms of resource allocation, Senegal has shown a strong commitment to

education historically, including primary education. Senegal allocates a large share of its budget

to education, one of the largest shares of any OIC countries (See Figure 14, Chapter 2). Currently,

the authorities allocate about 24.8% of the total domestic resources to education, equating to

about 7.2% of GDP in 2014.

Composition of spending:

However, a very large portion of that spending goes toward recurrent

expenditures

239

(especially teacher salaries). A UNICEF (2016) report shows that between 2006

and 2013, recurrent expenditure average around 90% with only 10% left for capital

expenditures

240

. This modest share of resources allocated for capital expenditures leads to

financing shortages for purchasing of instructional material and other inputs affecting the quality

of education.

Dividing the education spending into howmuch is spent on access, quality and management leads

to another striking feature: over the past few years, around 80% of primary school spending and

90% of secondary school spending went into budgets pertaining to ‘access’

241

. Only 20% of

primary level spending and 10% of secondary spending is for ‘quality’ and ‘management’. Such

spending did translate into higher education access rates as seen in the earlier section but the

quality of schooling has lagged behind and reflects its low investment levels.

239

UNICEF (2016) “Analyse des depenses publiques dans les secteurs sociaux au Senegal 2006-2013”

240

UNICEF (2016) figure 12

241

UNICEF (2016) figure 14

31,3

51,1

28,6

30,8

28,9

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

North

West

Center

Southeast

Southwest

National

Reference area

significant difference

Non-significant difference

43,7

55,5

32,4

37,2