Guinea is a country
located in West Africa .It used to be an old French colony .It became
independent on October 2nd 1958 .Prior to independence, (1) “its
educational system was patterned on that of France. All schools were
nationalized in 1961.” French is the
official language and the language of instruction in Guinea. Being a native of
the country, having done part of my studies in 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
vision in this 21st century; Corruption; And Enough trained
teachers. Let’s try to figure out the source of these issues and how the system
works? What needs to be done to improve it?
Due to the fact that
France was surprised by the will 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. (2) “ 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.”
I must say that
illiteracy is a major issue in Guinea. (3) “Projected adult illiteracy rates
for the year 2000 stood at 58.9% (males 44.9%; females 73%)”. 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 the UNICEF titled “Focus on education”, (4) it was published in 2010 and states:
“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”. 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, (5) “we teach to 85 children per classroom”, 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 study to choose
from: Mathematical sciences; Social sciences; Experimental sciences. At the end
of High school, there’s a national exam “BAC” that they must pass to go to
college.
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 are 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 up to date materials and equipments to teachers and students
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.
WORK
CITED:
(1); (2); (3) www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Guinea-EDUCATION.html
(4); (5) www.unicef.org/infobycountry/guinea_53615.html
(4); (5) www.unicef.org/infobycountry/guinea_53615.html
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