Schools and School Children

Schools in Senegal are free, but the children must buy their own books. This keeps many poor children from attending school. When children are sent from villages to the big city of Dakar for an education, the families seldom come with them. They must beg during the daytime for food and have very little time for a better education. There is no law about mandatory school attendance.
The native language in Senegal is Woluf. Primary children learn to speak French. If they stay in school long enough, they will begin to learn English in middle school or high school.
All children go home for a 2-hour lunch break every day.

One of my readers was a man named Baba, who came for only about three reading sessions. He is a single, Muslim man about 50 years old who is in poor health. He rode the bus for an hour each way to attend the reading sessions, but then he quit coming during Ramadan. He said that he could not return because of his working hours when school began for the next semester. He is a primary teacher who moves up each year with his children. He teaches about 100 children in a classroom by himself! I asked about discipline, and he said that if a student misbehaves, he is "beaten". (Someone told me that the word "beaten" is used here to include any type of hitting, rather than just the kind that leaves physical damage.) When I asked him about how he graded so many papers from so many children, he acted like he did not know what I was talking about. He said that the children take tests at the chalkboard. Everything that he said about the school day made me think of how it was in the early 1800's in this country.

I am also reading with two young men who want to become teachers. They are attending the local university and must pass a "hard test" to get into the teachers' training school. That school is about a 2 year school. After that, a national official assigns the teaching positions. So a student does not know the part of Senegal to which he will be assigned! More education is demanded of city teachers than of the village teachers.

Another of my readers is a young lady named Awa, who is a journalist. She has written articles about the schools in which she says that many of the ones in Dakar are in the areas of the markets and that people from the markets wander into the schools at all times of the day to use the restrooms and to loiter on the school property. She says the noise from the markets makes learning in the schools almost impossible. She calls on officials to help with the problems about which she writes.
Awa also interviewed people and wrote articles about flooding in the school buildings. The children are out of school during the summer rainy season, but during that time many of the schools flood. The flood water does not receed for several months because of poor drainage systems in the city. There was concern that many schools would not be cleaned up in time for them to reopen for the next semester. Flooding is also a problem in many homes, so during the rainy season many of the people from the flooded homes go to live in the schools that are not flooded! Then there is the problem of getting the people out in time for school to begin! Needless to say, there are no carpets, no nice school libraries, no computers until high school, no pretty artwork, no nice equipment, etc., etc. !

Many of the schools are Muslim schools, some of which are much better than others. Following are two photos of school children sitting inside on the floor. There is no furniture in this school room. Notice that the boys and girls are separated.




Children at some schools wear uniforms. This photo was taken outside one of the larger schools one morning before school.

This is the only playground equipment that I have seen in the Dakar area. There are no city parks, so children play in the street or on vacant land. These photos were taken at a school yard on Goree Island. Apartments are in the background.