Education in Mauritania

Presentation

since its independence 28th November 1960; Mauritania knows so many struggles and military actions, after the first general election in the country and when the Daddah’s party win the election and became the president of the state, in 1978 it was a military action that took him out the governance and it was a beginning of a series of military actions.

After OULD DADDAH  a military commission led by Mustafa OULD MED SALECK took the power ;and all the constitutional establishments was arrested ; in the same year OULD MED SALECK presents his demission ; another military man : 

Med Mahmoud OULD AHMED LOULY took the power, in less than two years OULD HEYDALA became the president by military action ; and established a new government and constitution , OULD SIDI AHMED TAYA   became the prime minister in April 1981 in a new military government and soon he led a popular manifestation lead to a military action put end for the HEYDALA’s as a president in 1984 ; a new constitution was establish by OULD TAYA in 1991 , all that continue until the last one led by the present president OULD ABDELAZIZ . After OULD MED FALL movement 2005

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The Mauritanian people live under this difficult political and military situations, in add the society constitute of different races and tribes maurs, barber and Negros this is a source of cultural richness but also a reason of some problems.

The independence of Mauritania was in the beginning of years sixty, but in the same time because of some political and social factors.

In the late 1980s, Mauritania was still in the early stages of developing a modern education system. Although Islamic education had long been an important part of life, this religious instruction involved only rote learning of the Quran. Few Mauritanians possessed skills necessary to create a modern nation-state.  The government has consistently stressed the need for improved and expanded education programs and in the 1980s was actively pursuing these goals. While modern, skill-oriented programs were being established to help satisfy the growing needs for skilled workers and technicians, efforts also were under way to expand traditional Islamic education. Expanding Quranic education has been viewed as necessary to preserve Islamic cultural tradition and promote national unity.

Before the 1999 reform, there were two separated systems of education in Mauritania:

• The Arabic branch in which Arabic was the main language of studies.
• The Bilingual branch where the courses of study were mainly taught in French.

In each branch only a few hours were spent in the other language and the rest of the courses were taught in full Arabic or in full French. This system of education lasted for twenty years from 1979 to 1989. The majority of Moors, especially in the countryside, used to follow the Arabic Branch while the Puulars, Soninkés, and Wolfs registered mainly in the Bilingual Branch.

The existence of these two systems of education was the main source of friction between the different communities of the nation, as they used to grow apart one from the others. In addition, despite the efforts of the government who used to invest a great part of his budget in public schools (one fourth in 1998), the education standards were falling drastically year by year. Reports of 1998 show that only 30% of the students pass the examination of the BAC. Wealthy families were obliged to send their children to private schools where a different system was applied to avoid low education standards..

On April 1999, the government of Mauritania decided to remedy this situation by reforming the old educational system. The new reform establishes, for all citizens of Mauritania, one single and efficient system of education. Its main objective is to help them acquire the necessary tools to face the new challenges of the third millennium with due respect to their cultural and religious standards. To achieve this goal, the reformers departed from full Arabization at the primary school and introduced French at the second year of the primary school and English at the first year of the high school. Besides, the scientific subjects like math, natural sciences and computer are all taught in French for all the schooling period. In addition, more efforts are exerted to promote the local languages through the establishment of a research department at the university level.

The 1999 reforms have brought the following changes in the education system:

• All classes at the first year of the Primary School will be taught in Arabic. French is introduced at the beginning of the second year of the Primary Schools
• The establishment of one single system of education for all Mauritanians
• Creation of professional training centers in each region according to its economic vocation
• Addition of one more year at the first cycle of the secondary schools. Students will now spend 7 years of courses at the Secondary school before passing the Baccalaureat
• English is introduced at the first year of the secondary school
• Scientific courses like Math, Natural Sciences, Computers will be taught only in French for all
• Computer Sciences are taught at the fourth year of the Secondary School.

 Description of the Education System

PRE-PRIMARY

This stage includes the children between 3 and 6 years old, the Mauritanians from each races begin teaching their children the Quran, reading, and writing in Arabic, many and different institutions and centers present this services it include for example what is called: children gardens, the statistics mentioned that the number of children in these gardens was more than 330thousand child, about 13,2% from all Mauritanian people, the number of governmental house of children’s gardens in 1999 was 12 house, contain 1116 child, the private children’s gardens 135 garden contain 4200 child,  with 67 houses supervised by different associations in different villages contain about 7050 child.

The studies mentioned that the education in children’s gardens needs the pedagogic activities which participate in construction and evaluation of the child personality, needs also to introduce some communication skills make the child ready to make connection with his middle. With the increasement in the number of children’s gardens, just about 4,5 of these children benefit of these houses ,as the UN’s statistics for 2000 said.

PRIMARY EDUCATION

The primary school is six years long; and the Mauritanian state succeeds in extending this education to cover so many parts of the state; this is supported by the number and the statistics in the last years. in 1964 the  of students in primary schools was 19100, 14% of  the total number of students that have to study , this rate arrives 35% in 1984, scholar year  85-86 the number of students in the primary school increased to be 140871 students ,the males was always the majority . the number of schools in this years was about 878 school , and the teachers 2900 teacher, the Mauritanian government was interested by teaching Arabic language as the official language because of the struggle between the French and Arabic speakers , and in the last 15 years the government was interested by developing the primary education : it tries to build some schools in different parts of the country , and it tries to stop the leaving of the school.

The United Nations rapports mentioned some positive points that was achieved in the last period: in 2003 the primary education became possible in about 90% of Mauritanian territory, and the number of students was increased from 187502 student in (1991-1992) to 375695 in (2001-2002) in the same period the number of school was increased from 1309 to 3266, and the teachers of primary education from 3967 to 9604.

 All this good numbers was always related by a great rate in the students who leave the primary school, this rate was decrease from 55% in (1998-1999) to 45% in (2001-2002) but it is still a high and dangerous rate.

The weakness of logistic materials and the absence of teachers stay the great problems for this education. In add the number of teachers is enough, the poverty rate and the expenses of study.

SECONDARY  EDUCATION

The period of this stage is 7 years now; it was 6 years before the law of 1999; the secondary education is devised into two periods: college 3 years , and (lycee) 4 years .

 in college students study English language in the first year ; physic in the third ;and the computer science in the fourth , all these subjects  in French ,the others( history – geography-the Islamic culture and education…) in Arabic .

The "Lycée" is three years long and pupils are directed, according to their capacity, to four specialized sections commonly called "Series":

-         Serie LO for "original Literature ". A strong grasp in the Arabic language is required to succeed in this section as the main courses (Islamic Studies, Philosophy, Legislation, History and Geography) are taught in this language. Pupils who graduated from this section can pursue their studies at ISERI to become "Qady", legislator in Islamic Laws, or professor in Islamic studies at the "Lycée" and "College"

-         Serie LM for "modern literature" This is the section for Modern Literature. Pupils should be bilingual (French and Arabic) to be sent to this section.

-         Serie D for "Natural science ". This is the scientific section of higher school. It puts the emphasis on math, physics and natural sciences that are all taught in French.

-         Serie C for "Mathematics". It has the same curriculum as the "Serie D" with more hours spent in the teaching of math.

The final year of the (Lycée ) is known as the "Terminal class" which is the year of preparation for the examination of the Baccalaureate.

In opposite of the primary education the rate of students in the secondary schools was increased slowly ,it was 15,2% in 1985 and became 18,9 in 2000, the number of secondary schools in 19985-1986 was just 44 schools , and the number of teachers was 1563 about 412 of them was not Mauritanians .

The secondary education is suffering many and different problems and obstacles: the programs of study, the useless of new technologies and systems, luck of books and scholar materials , the teachers and their level of competences, moreover the administrations and their ways of work and the political problems and transitions.

HIGHER  EDUCATION

There are in Mauritania University of Nouakchott University is a single (NU), established in 1981, which currently comprises only three faculties: Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science and Technology, Faculty of Legal and Economic Sciences.
The number of students enrolled in higher education in Mauritania has increased significantly, and the number of obtaining a bachelor's degree from the (1737) to (3137) between 1990 to 2000; The BAC is required to register to one of these "Faculties". Students spend two years to finish the First Cycle of university studies by obtaining "DEUG". An additional two years at the Second Cycle offers the opportunity to obtain the diploma of "Maitrise" after writing and presenting before a jury a final dissertation called "Memoire".

There are other specialized institutions of higher education besides the traditional curriculum at the University of Nouakchott:

_    National School for Administration (ENA) : 1966

_    National school for teachers (ENI):

_    Normal Higher School  (ENS)

_   Scientific Institute for Islamic studies and Researches (ISERI): 1979

_   National School for Public Heath de Santé Publique (ENSP) 

_   The national school for health (ISSM)

_   The higher centre for Technical teaching  (CSET) : 1980

They trained Baccalaureate holders to become teachers at the Primary schools, Professors of "College" or "Lycée", administrators in public services, medical doctors or health specialists.

The number of students in the higher education; the baccalaureate holders was increased from 1737 to 3137 between 1990 and 2000.

 percentage of students enrolled in the Faculty of Law and Economics 59.5% of the total students in higher education in Mauritania in 2000; while the percentage of students in the Faculty of Science and Technology 10% of the total students in higher education. 
With the increase in the number of students enrolled in higher education in Mauritania (7.046) in 1992 to (10.727) in 2000 but that the increase in the number of faculty members were relatively few have increased faculty members (249) to (304) during the same period In addition to a number of faculty members working for some time (Part time).
And needs of higher education to a comprehensive reform of all institutions, and improve the conditions of those who support it, where teachers suffer from low salaries, which do not exceed the salaries of their counterparts in the fourth neighboring countries. 

LITERACY

Still illiteracy is the major problem impeding the  economic and social development in Mauritania;  the state made strenuous efforts to eradicate the illiteracy; In 1985 total literacy rate for adult was between 17-25% , this  percentage represents a quantum leap in this area, for the eradication of illiteracy Mauritanian government has established the Council for literacy in the middle of 1986, in the same year the government announced that the number of literacy classes have increased twice what it was in 1985.
In general, the educational system of Mauritania has a lot of strong points in the area of literacy, and these points contribute to increase awareness of the need  for a comprehensive strategy to deal with the problem of illiteracy, and so to allow to make the convoys illiteracy : convoys moving behind population movements in the Bedouin ( known as the transported  schools ) to stop the leakage of learners on the one hand and dropped out of literacy on the other hand.
 The Ministry of Education has been succeeding, to overcome this problem, which succeeded in literacy (2.570) scholars in 1992; the proportion of women has reached 62% of the number of students. The number of classes for literacy from 100 classes in 1990 to (2050) class in 1999, taught by (26.000) student, an average of 13 student scholars in each class.
But there remains the problem of assessing the level of students in those classes and the extent of credibility in the eradication of illiteracy, the estimation of level was left always for the student himself. 

EDUCATION OF GIRLS

With the insistence of the Mauritanian Government to make education for all a national objective, and achieved positive results in this regard, it was always a large gap between the numbers of the sexes in education, as there is wide variation in the proportion of enrolled females in several states, and this percentage varies between 52% to 97%.
Constraints the education of girls in Mauritania can be summarized in:
- Lack of family income, some families need  the work of children, especially girls, and the Mauritanian family  prefers to educate child than girl under the lack of possibilities.
- The spread of the phenomenon of early marriage, which prevents many girls from completing their studies. 
- Low salaries for teachers, leading to their absence from work due to low motivation and lack of training, lack of rate parameters to the teachers, where there is only 24% of females compared to 76% of males report by the UNESCO in 2003.
- The educational system don’t respond to the needs of female students in Mauritanian society where they do not relate to reality in terms of teaching agricultural skills or manual work skills  appropriate to the nature of Mauritanian society.
- The high rate of illiteracy among parents is up to 51% among mothers, and 30% among fathers.
With all these constraints, it has been achieved many accomplishments was the allocation of government accounted for 23% of national income to spend on education, and the enrollment ratio in primary education has risen to 64%, was narrowing the gender gap between female and male education to 4% at the level of acceptance, but this is still a large gender gap at the level of completion of the educational ladder.

the absence of statistics, weakness of logistic materials, and lack of teachers and schools, with the programs and educational system that don’t respond to the need of country and citizen all that stay the main obstacles and problems face the educational system in Mauritania, after the statistics of 2000 there are no precise numbers give us an idea about the change and the evaluation in the educational system in Mauritania. Latest news the education has won 17% of the state budget for 2011 , in Mauritania now  the ministry of education includes three ministries delegates:

-Minister delegate of primary and secondary education

-Minister delegate of employment and technical training

- minister of higher education and scientific research

So to assure a life long education of Mauritanian community. We have to try to come over some difficulties I have cited in this research, now we know the situation we need just to discuss and purpose about the solutions