The Republic of Guinea is located on the western coast of Africa. It is an old French colony and it became independent on October 2nd 1958. Guinea is bordered by Senegal and Mali on the north, Ivory Coast on the east, Liberia and Sierra Leone on the South with an area of 94,900 squares miles and a population estimated at 11 million. Its population is made of major tribal groups: 35% Peul, 30% Malinké, 20% Soussou, and 14% Forestier. The different governments have made some efforts to improve things, but a lot remain to be done. Being a native of the country, having done part of my studies there, and being fortunate to have studied abroad, I could say with a deep conviction that the system of education in Guinea faces multiple challenges: Lack of investment; Lack of a clear vision for education in this 21st century; Corruption.; And lack of enough trained teachers. Let’s try to figure out the source of these issues; how does the system works? What needs to be done to improve it?
· Educational System Overview:
(1) “Guinea set a precedent when it became the only former French colony to sever ties completely with its past colonial framework. Everything it did, from its economy to its revolutionary educational system, was closely watched as a new African experiment in the making. The French educational system, which had been in place for more than 100 years, was dismantled.” ( state University.com 12-13-12)
(2) “All schools were nationalized in 1961.”(nationsencyclopedia.com 12-13-12). French is the official language and the language of instruction in Guinea. The Preprimary primary education, secondary education, and higher education are molded on the French national education system which had been implemented in all formers French colonies in West Africa. Its educational system has experienced many difficulties since it declared its independence from France.
Due to the fact that France was surprised by the will and the determination of the people to become independent, it imposed an embargo on the young independent nation by boycotting everything that it used to be involved in and imposed to other powerful European nations to do the same. (3) “ In 1968, a cultural revolution, aimed at de-Westernizing Guinean life, was inaugurated; since then, eight vernaculars have been added to the school curriculum, and village-level programs have been set up to assist in implementation of the plan.” (nationsencyclopedia.com 12-13-12)
I must say that illiteracy is a major issue in Guinea. (4) “Projected adult illiteracy rates for the year 2000 stood at 58.9% (males 44.9%; females 73%)”. (unicef.org 12-13-12) The lack of investment in education is another major issue in this country full of natural resources that are poorly managed by a small group of people with only one agenda which is to everything that they can to remain in power to be the only ones benefiting from the resources and keep the majority of the population in poverty. This group of people has no interest in allowing any significant investment in education because they fear that once people become educated, they will see the light and ask for a change in the way that the country is managed and governed. To better illustrate my thoughts, I found this article from UNICEF titled “Focus on education”, it was published in 2010 and states: (5) “The effects of a lack of investment in education in recent years, reportedly has led to a drop in the country’s primary school enrollment rate”. (unicef.org 12-13-12) Talking from personal experiences, I witnessed classrooms being overcrowded; I had to share my table and at times my school supplies with other students. I can’t even mention technology, because it is pretty much non-existent except in few private schools.
The salary of a teacher is very low and doesn’t not allow him or her to depend on it as sole source of income. So, there’s a lot of corruption that people witness on daily basis. Classes being overcrowded, (6) “we teach to 85 children per classroom”,(unicef.org 12-13-12) a lot of teachers end up asking money to students who poorly perform to give them good grades so that they can pass the class.
In Guinea, education is free in the public schools. Kids can start kindergarten at age 5 .Prior to that, if parents can financially afford it, they can send their kids to a private pre-school called “pépiniére” in French. The system of education is structured in three stages: Elementary school; Secondary school; University.
At the elementary level, children go through six years of primary schooling then must pass a national exam called “CEP” to start secondary school which is done in seven years. After 4 years of secondary school, there’s a national exam called “BEPC” that students must pass to reach High School.
Once in High school where students have 3 years to go through, they have three fields of studies to choose from: Mathematical sciences; Social sciences; Experimental sciences. After completing 3 years in High school, there’s a national exam “BAC” that they must pass to go to college.
The Guinean education system is costly and inefficient. The reasons for this state of affairs are many, complex and inter-related. It serves no purpose to simply blame the inefficiency of the Ministry, the failures of foreign aid or the poverty of the country. The fact is that the system has not seen a major review for quiet sometime now. The combination of policies and actions under the responsibility of the central authority has so far not produced the desired effects. These issues mentioned above has led me to ask myself a question: what would the desired impact be at the school level? I think that it could be summarized as follows. A school is effective when students:
· Attend on a daily basis, progress from one level to another, and
· Obtain their diploma
· Leave the school able to read, write and solve problems
· Become reasoning, independent citizens
· Are in a position to be productive after completing their schooling.
The factors contributing to this impact can be found on both the school and system levels. The relations between the central authority and the local community, between the system and the school can be quite tense at times. The balance of forces between the two poles will in a large measure determine perhaps the success of the school and its students.
In the light of some the issues that exist in system of education in Guinea, I strongly believe that this is not a fatal situation or one without a solution. There is couple of solutions that could be implemented to improve things:
· Active pedagogy
· Hiring more teachers
· Increasing teachers salary to reduce corruption
· Building more schools to avoid overcrowding classes
· Providing materials and equipment to teachers and students that are up to date
· Institutional analysis ( focusing more on the needs of the schools than the system)
· Budget administration and planning
· Teacher training
· Equity
· Community participation
There are institutions such as UNICEF ,World Bank, U.E and they have programs in place to assist 3rd world countries to improve their educational systems by helping to build more schools and providing materials, equipments, solutions to improve the quality of education in these countries.
Another suggestion will be for the Guinean government or the Department of education to organize national conferences where teachers will be able to expose the difficulties that they encounter and brainstorm on the solutions that could be implemented to improve the quality of education.
Decision making power and resources relevant to school success should be located at the school level, with a school principal operating under community scrutiny. The principal should be in charge of applying quality standards and should be held responsible for the effectiveness of the school. Equity concerns should be brought to the fore in the entire educational environment, including the public and private systems, the community and the school.
Resources should be focused on improving the academic performance of girls and disadvantaged children. The local community should be a full partner in planning, implementing, and monitoring school activities at the local level.
Based on the success level of other countries in the same region, I think that The Republic of Guinea is fully capable to obtain similar results in their system of education as others did. Reaching out to neighbors and asking to evaluate their systems to see what approach they took and the methodology that they followed to obtain significant results ,will be an option on the table that the Ministry of Education of Guinea could use and possibly implement to better the system of education . I know that the country is not lacking of people well qualified to bring a reform to the system .It’s a matter of letting these people to do their job without any outside influence in the best interest of the country and for the future of its youth . Ivory Coast and Senegal which are two French speaking countries located in the same region with Guinea have a better system of education not because of more qualified people in their systems than Guinea, but they were able to reform their systems in good faith by putting the man needed at the spot needed and the rest is history …
I have no doubt in my mind that The Republic of Guinea can get the same results as others have done it by simply accepting to prioritize education than the army which carries the biggest part of the national budget . The people in power have a deep fear of the army. So, for them, taking care of the army to remain in power is more of a priority than focusing on educating people, bringing reforms to the system of education, and offering a more solid education to the youth for a better future.
A nation is strong when its people have a clear vision of the future and the people is involved into the decision making process by having a solid education which will give them a better comprehension on how things are done and what needs to be put in place for things to run smoothly so that everybody can benefit from a successful nation. This is a country full of natural resources and a rich soil where anything can grow. When I see all this potential being mismanaged by a small group of people thinking that only they deserve it and the rest of the population is not entitled to it, it frustrates me to a point where I ask myself why things are like that. Then, the only explanation that I can come up with is the greed of mankind.
History has shown that under the first regime of Guinea, even though, it went through a boycott, embargo, different forms of pressure for the regime to fail. It was able to give a priority to the system of education with the resources that were available at that time and the assistance that it was able to get from countries such as Russia, Cuba, Czech Republic, and Vietnam. None of these countries had French as first or official language of the country, but they were able to come in Guinea to learn French then teach in schools and universities. The Guinean students were among the best in Africa and some of them were able to go teach in other newly independent countries in Africa in the early 60’s through late 80’s.
I strongly believe that it is a matter of having a clear vision for the nation and understanding that education is a must for a nation to be able to sustain itself .Without a competitive sector of education, it’ll be very difficult for a nation to talk about development and aspire to stand among great and powerful nations.
The key to success for a nation cannot be obtained without a strong and solid system of education.
Work cited:
MT
