The Malian School System

Since people asked… I am going to be talking about the Malian education system. Its actually pretty sad, because although elementary school is compulsory, its hard to follow through; classes are REALLY overcrowded and teachers are often poorly trained; and (in my personal opinion) the school system is not one where children learn, because the system stresses repetition, and not individual thinking and questioning.

Not all the villages in Mali have a school, and so many kids have to walk a few kilometers every day, which is the case in my village, which does have a school. The education system is broken up into several levels. The first stage, or cycle in French, goes from 1st to 6th, and then the second stage goes from 7th to 9th grade. After that it’s high school, and after that, university. However, most students only make it through the first cycle, or sometimes the second cycle. Because of the over-crowding and the poor teaching, very few students make it to high school, and even fewer make it to the university level. It is worse for girls; although there is an equal balance between the genders during the first stage, after that there is a drop-off in female students, until the classes are made up of mostly men. There are several reasons for this: partly because women get married so early in rural areas, partly because girls are less likely to speak up in class, answer questions, etc. Unfortunately the level of education is so bad that even if they do make it through elementary school, it is not guaranteed that they can read or write very well, if at all. I have several little girls who like to show me what they learn, and even at 8 or 9 years old can’t write their numbers correctly.

I have been told that school is free; however, I think that also depends on the school and the location. I believe (because I can never be sure I understand everything that’s told to me in village) that there is a small fee to pay if children want to go to the school in my village. Supposedly pens and notebooks are provided free of charge as well, but I don’t think that is necessarily the case where I am either. There are no textbooks, and so teachers just write the day’s lesson on the board, and then the children copy it down (in red and blue pens only). They study a wide variety of subjects, supposedly, from Bambara and French to the sciences and math.

So although the Malian government is trying to push education, right now its pretty much a system that’s failing the population.

An additional note: I wrote the above earlier, and then I attended a session on education in Mali. So, some statistics to highlight/stress what I wrote:

• Although Mali is 1st in the world in education spending (32% of gov't budget) it ranks 173rd out of 177 on UNDP's Human Development Index and 8 out of 10 for reading mastery by the end of primary school in Francophone countries
• 23% of boys and 10% of girls can read a simple French sentence by the end of 4th grade
• Adult literacy in French is estimated at 29%