Students are seen at the Djedji Amondji Pierre high school in Adjame, Abidjan, on September 16, 2022. - AFPPIX: Youngsters in Ivory Coast return to school this week with a sword of Damocles above their heads: those with average grades of less than 8.5 out of 10 will be excluded at the end of the year.
“We’re going to turn them into bandits. We want the teaching to be up to par, but one step at a time,“ she adds, while making sure a worn mathematics book has no missing pages before she buys it. The minister of national education, Mariatou Kone, who is seeing in the second new school year of her time in office, defends a regulation that is far from universally welcomed.
“We must not leave anybody aside. The state must redirect these students to training in other trades,“ insists Claude Kadio Aka, president of the Organization of the Parents of Pupils and Students in Ivory Coast .- ‘Measure of averages’ - But the “measure of averages” will not suffice to improve a school system which is sorely lacking in resources.