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Ivory Coast
Index
During the early 1980s, Côte d'Ivoire spent a higher
share of
its gross national product
(GNP--see Glossary) and of its
national
budget on education than any other country in the world.
Although
this served as an indication of the nation's high regard
for
education, expatriate teachers' salaries accounted for a
disproportionate share of current expenditures, reducing
the
benefits to the nation itself. Generous scholarships for
secondaryschool students also reduced funds available for younger
children.
The Ministry of National Education and Scientific
Research
assigned highest priority to problems of financing
educational
development and reducing the number of school dropouts.
Reducing
regional inequities was also important; in 1986
enrollments in the
south averaged about four times those in the north. The
government
employed innovative methods to improve the education
system,
including the use of televised instruction in primary
schools in
the 1970s--a project that was abandoned as too expensive.
Computers
and automated data processing equipment were being used at
the
National University in 1987 and were to be introduced at
lower
levels of the educational system by 1990. By the late
1980s, the
government was also producing its own text books,
previously
purchased in France, to reflect local rather than Foreign
cultural
values.
The internal efficiency of the education system was
relatively
low, partly because of the large number of students who
repeated
courses and the high dropout level. The number of
school-aged
children was expected to grow at an average annual rate of
4.3
percent by 1995, increasing the school-aged population by
50
percent. Unfortunately, teacher-training programs could
not keep
pace with these changes, and educational planners were in
particular demand. The link between education and
employment was
also weak, exacerbated by the economic recession of the
1980s.
Graduates, in effect, expected more than society could
give them.
As in many countries, academic institutions and personnel
often
annoy government officials with their outspoken criticism
of
national policies
(see Discontent on Campus
, ch. 1). A
number of
mechanisms are used to co-opt or intimidate dissident
leaders,
although a few of their criticisms have been received
favorably and
have produced policy changes. Some outspoken teachers have
been
offered government jobs, in effect to receive the brunt of
criticism they have generated. Some students have been
expelled
from the university. The campus was closed down following
antigovernment demonstrations in 1982, and campus
organizations
were banned. Secondary-school teachers who protested
against the
elimination of their housing benefits in 1983 found their
professional organizations banned as well.
Data as of November 1988
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