Benin report - Institut Africain de la Gouvernance

CHAPTER SIX: SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT__________________________________________________________________________system, which could be attributed to the quality of service provided. This, inturn, depends on the quality of the teachers and their working conditions.799. The problem of teachers has often been mentioned in the capital city by theline ministries and in the districts by the stakeholders. It was concluded thatthere are insufficient teachers and their quality keeps dropping. The followingtable indicates the progress made in student/teacher ratios from 1992 to 2005.Table 6.3: Trends in student/teacher ratios, 1992-20051992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 200539.8 48.3 52.0 53.7 55.8 55.3 52 50Source: Programming and Planning Department (DPP)-Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education(MEPS)800. This downward trend in supervision (increases in the number of students perteacher) results mainly from the recruitment freeze in the public service due tostructural adjustment measures. However, the needs in education areincreasing. Despite hiring contract workers, this deficit stood at more than8,000 teachers for government primary education at the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year. To fill these vacant positions, communities at the grass rootsrecruit community teachers for the primary schools, and these individuals areoften not suitably qualified. For this reason there are three types of teachers inpublic primary schools: permanent civil servants, contract workers andcommunity workers.801. Based on the girl/boy ratio at the primary and secondary levels, availableindicators show a ratio of 0.75 in 2004 for an MDG target of 1 by 2015. Thesame indicators show the proportion of girls completing primary school inrural areas to be 14% compared to the 39% for boys. This inequality hampersthe achievement of the MDGs in the education sector. It could also lead toquestions about the extent to which progress indicators could be compatiblewith the objectives set for Benin by 2025 when measuring the necessity for,and importance of, a large number of schooled and qualified women.Box 6.3: Universal education as defined by the MDGsThese projections for 2015 show the distance that still remains to be covered in order toensure universal education as defined by the MDGs; that is, to ensure that all children who goto school reach CM2 (Form 3). The situation is exacerbated by the fact that repeats are quiterampant in the system, and by the existence of many schools that do not offer sufficientclasses, especially at the primary level (in 2002, nearly 40% of primary school children wereregistered in schools that do not offer six years of schooling). In addition, there are otherserious problems linked to gender equity and geographical location. The proportions of pupilswho completed primary school by zone and gender in 2002 were as follows:70% of boys who completed primary school were in urban areas.260