Education in Mali
Encyclopedia
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
is, in principle, provided free of charge and is compulsory for nine years between the ages of 7 and 16. The system encompasses six years of primary education
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
beginning at age seven, followed by six years of secondary education
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
, generally divided into two three-year cycles. However, Mali’s actual primary school enrollment rate is low, in large part because families are unable to cover the cost of uniforms, books, supplies, and other fees required to attend even public school.
Primary education
In the 2000–01 school year, primary school enrollment was estimated to include only 61 percent of the appropriate age-group (71 percent of males and 51 percent of females). The primary school completion rate is also low: only 36 percent of students in 2003 (and lower for females). The majority of students reportedly leave school by age 12. The secondary school enrollment rate in the late 1990s was 15 percent (20 percent for males and 10 percent for females).Government expenditures on education in 2000 constituted about 15.6 percent of total government expenditures and about 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). According to Malian government estimates for the 2003–04 school year, Mali had 318 pre-primary institutions with 971 teachers and 35,000 students; 8,714 general primary and secondary institutions with 36,064 teachers and 1,650,803 students; and 37,635 students in tertiary institutions. The education system is plagued by a lack of schools in rural areas, as well as shortages of teachers and materials.
Secondary education
Increased spending on primary education, especially for children in rural areas and girls, has had the unintended effect of overtaxing the secondary school system. At the end of their primary schooling, students may take entrance exams for secondary school admissions, called the diplôme d’étude fondamentale (Fundamental Studies Diploma or DEF). In 2008 more than 80,000 students passed these exams, yet around 17,000—40% of whom were girls—were denied placement in secondary schools. While the government contends these students should be placed in limited places based on their diploma, their age, and their academic history, some Malians contend that gender discrimination plays a role in denying spots to girls.The government has stressed primary education funding, hoping to reach universal primary education by 2015 in line with the international Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...
, but the Basic Education Minister of Mali says that this has overtaxed the secondary school system. The government reported that from 2002 to 2007, the percentage of girls enrolled in primary school increased from 56 percent to 68 percent and boys from 78 percent to 88 percent. At the same time the government estimates 35 percent of primary school students in the 2010 graduating class will not meet Secondary School requirements. The government plans to invest in an expanded system of both Secondary academic vocational education to meet the demand.
Students in Mali pay no tuition fees, but private secondary and vocational schooling may charge $600 a year (in Bamako, 2008), in a nation where the average yearly salary was $500 in 2007 according to the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
.
Literacy
According to United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
government estimates, the adult literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
rate (defined as those over age 15 who can read and write) was 46.4 percent for the total population in 2003 (53.5 percent for males and 39.6 percent for females). According to United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
sources, however, the literacy rate is actually much lower—only 27–30 percent overall and as low as 12 percent for females, among the lowest rates in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
Higher education
One of the oldest universities in the world — Sankore in TimbuktuTimbuktu
Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
— dates to the 15th century.
The University of Bamako
University of Bamako
The University of Bamako is a public university in Bamako, the capital of Mali. It is also known as the University of Mali.Opened in 1996, in has brought together nine campuses across the city. The institiution created by Law 93-060 of September 1993, but only launched in November 1996. It was...
, also known as the University of Mali, is a 1990s aggregation of older institutions of higher education in the Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...
area. Its main campus is in the neighborhood of Badalabougou. The University includes five Faculties and two institutes: The Science and Technology faculty (Faculté des sciences et techniques or FAST), The Medical faculty (Faculté de Médecine, de Pharmacie et d’Odento-Stamologie or FMPOS), the Humanities, Arts, and Social Science faculty (Faculté des Lettres, Langues, Arts et Sciences Humaines or FLASH), the Law and Public Service faculty (Faculté des Sciences Juridiques et Politiques FSJP), the Science of Economy and Management Faculty ("Faculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion" or FSEG, the Institute of Management ( "Institut Universitaire de Management" or IUG), and the Higher Institute for Training and Applied Research ("Institut Supérieur de Formation et de Recherche Appliquée" or ISFRA).