Ambassadors' Girls Scholarship pupils welcome Aleta Williams, center, and Cynthia Taha, back, at the Lotcho school, near Bohicon. (Photo USAID)

Justine Gobetoho, Treasurer of the Mothers’ Association (AME) of Djibio. Typically, Beninese school parents associations (PAs) are dominated by men. Today, mothers like Justine work in tandem with PAs and men welcome their efforts to enroll more girls. (Photo USAID)

On February 25, 2009, Ms. Aleta Williams, Senior USAID Education Advisor for Africa, spoke on the theme of “Education and Employment: making the connections”, at a conference held at the American Cultural Center of Cotonou. The conference was part of a series of events organized by the American Embassy to celebrate Black History Month.(More…) The conference was attended by about 100 representatives of the students of the University of Abomey-Calavi and other Cotonou-based colleges, academics, journalists and other stakeholders. Participants heard first hand what the U.S. Government and USAID have accomplished and continue to do in the field of education.

Ms. Williams highlighted two key challenges to education and employment in Africa: the youth demographic boom, which has serious consequences for economic and social development, and the skill mismatch between the educational qualifications acquired by students and what the labor market needs. During the discussions and interactions that followed, Beninese youth actively discussed how to reconcile their need for practical, hands-on training and education, with the theoretical knowledge on which their university courses focus.

During the two days that followed the conference, Ms. Williams conducted site visits in Zou, Mono, and Ouémé regions.

“The Ambassadors’ Girl Scholarships Program must be sustained and continued.”

Since its inception four years ago, the Benin Ambassador’s Girl Scholarships Program (AGSP) has worked with two local partners and has supplied 5,803 scholarships to 4,593 girls and 1,200 boys. It operates in 44 schools in the North and South of the country, and works with 34 mentors.

The site visit in Bohicon (Zou region) took place on February 26 at the AGSP Lotcho school (one of the 10 AGSP sites in Benin) where Ms. Williams addressed AGSP stakeholders, including implementing local NGOs, beneficiaries and the community. Ms Williams met with the women mentors of scholarship recipients. In their own words, mentors spoke of their eagerness to contribute to their communities’ development. Mentors monitor the scholars’ academic work, organize home visits, help organize and supervise study groups. All AGSP stakeholders called for the AGSP to be continued.

Attesting to the effectiveness of the program, the Lotcho village school director stated, “Before the AGSP, we had only 11 kids going to school in this village. Nowadays, because of the program, we have 305 students, including 126 girls. Even though most are not scholarship recipients, we can attribute the increased attendance rate to AGSP, which mobilizes the community to send and keep girls and boys at school”.

“It takes a village to raise a child”

In the afternoon, Ms. Williams visited the Mono region and talked to the villages’ branches of the Mothers' Association, a distinctive component of the Girls’ Education and Community Participation (GECP), which USAID launched in April 2008 and that World Education implements. GECP supports the Ministry of Preschool and Primary Education and promotes girls’ education and community participation in primary schools. The first goal is to improve girls’ education in areas where girls’ access to and retention in primary school is the lowest in the country, the second is to increase community participation in the management and oversight of primary schools. World Education works in partnership with the local Parents’ and Mothers’ Associations and in close collaboration with several Beninese nongovernmental organizations, and local authorities of the Ministry of Preschool and Primary Education.

Traditionally, Beninese school parents associations are dominated by men. But with the Mothers’ Associations, which work in tandem with the Parents’ Associations, men welcome women’s contributions, especially as regards enrollment of girls. GECP significantly benefits girls’ education and community participation in schools of the targeted school districts. It is implemented in nine school districts in the Alibori, Borgou, Atacora and Zou regions. It also supports the Mothers’ Associations in the Mono and Couffo regions.

AME Members described how the Mothers’ Associations have empowered them to help their children, especially girls, to stay in school. The representatives of the associations movingly testified that they sensitize families on the importance of educating all children. The associations are dynamic; when mothers notice that a child is absent for a long time, they mobilize to convince the parents to bring him or her back to school.

This innovative community participation program involves over 150 mothers’ associations throughout Benin and serves as a model for promoting girls’ education and improving school management practices.

A Joint USAID-UNICEF Innovative Community Teachers Training Project

The visit to the oldest teacher training college again made more apparent the need for Beninese teacher training colleges to undergo profound changes. An assessment conducted in 2007, indicated that over 50 percent of primary school teachers do not hold a teacher’s certificate. As part of the USAID-funded UNICEF Community Teachers Training Project, which is training over 10,000 active but unqualified community teachers, the National Institute of Training and Research offers long distance and or group training in 36 centers in Benin. In addition, 400 community teachers have been trained using the USAID-developed new competency-based curriculum via the internet, radio, and print manuals. This innovative distance education project was initiated out of the urgent need for community teachers to acquire their teaching certificates.

By Fatima T. Touré AFR/SD/ED