Facts you should know about Burundi Primary and secondary education system
RegionWeek Newsletter Vol III, Issue #120 | Monday, September 7, 2020
This is a new version of the RegionWeek Newsletter for the 3rd season( July-December 2020). The content targets Business leaders, Decision-makers, and Young professionals with interests in Burundi and East Africa. Subscribe to stay productive, and competitive in a pandemic and disrupted season.
Dear Readers,
This Monday was the first day of the 2020-2021 school year in Burundi. The first term scheduled to go from 07/09/2020 to 24/12/2020, and the second term from 04/01/2021 to 02/04/2021 while the last term will be from 12/04/2021 to 02/07/2021 for Primary and Secondary schools.
In today’s newsletter, I would like to invite you to explore the key facts about Burundi’s Primary and Secondary education system.
Since 2013, Burundi has implemented a major reform of its education system. At the primary level (6 years) and at the high school level (4 years) has been replaced a complete cycle of basic or fundamental education divided into 4 cycles: the three cycles of two years which cover the former primary education and the fourth cycle which goes from the 7th to the 9th year.
Basic education, therefore, covers 9 years of education, the old 4th year of high-school was definitively abolished at the start of the 2016 school year. The reform of basic education started in 2013 with cycle 4, with the ambition of making this cycle "the natural extension of primary school, in its aims, methods, and organization.
The implementation of the new reforms and teaching policy requires a budget of 3 billion Bif in 2020. For the year 2021, an amount of 35 billion Bif is needed. For the year 2022, the amount will average of 35 billion Bif.
1.The Gross Enrollment Rate above 100%
Until 1954, all education was provided by religious missions; it was almost entirely limited to the primary grades. The percentage of eligible children attending school decreased from 28% in 1967 to 18% in 1975 before rising to 51% in 1992.
The education system has experienced strong expansion over the past decade. School enrollment is on the rise at all levels of education. Over the last decade, primary school enrollment more than doubled, going from 1,038,859 to 2,110,429, less than 2% of which are in private structures.
Preschool, although still weak in terms of social demand, saw its enrollment almost triple between 2004 and 2016, from 32,051 to around 92,000. This has translated into keeping the Gross Access Rate and the Gross Enrollment Rate above 100% for over half a decade. These rates fell respectively from 117.9% in 2008-2009 to 126.5% in 2016 and from 130.4% to 114.6% during the same period.
The fourth cycle of the fundamental (former high-school) saw its numbers multiplied by 4 (from 128,283 to 535,325). This increase is the consequence of the implementation of the fundamental reform and the abolition of the national entrance examination at the end of the 6th year. The number of general post-fundamental has also increased by more than 400%, going from 21,987 to 97,512, those of the technical post-basic have gone from 12,428 to 51,587.
2. A high number of children are still outside the education system
In 2018, nearly 19.8% of children aged 7 to 16 (90% of whom have never been to school and 10% have attended school but have dropped out) and 23% of children aged 6 to 14 (including 94% never attended school) ) were out of school. The proportion of boys is relatively higher among young Burundians outside of school (52.5%). About 93% of these children lived in rural areas.
When considering the distribution of out-of-school children across the 18 provinces, 5 of them, namely Kirundo, Ngozi, Ruyigi, Cibitoke, and Makamba alone account for almost half (48%) of older children. 7-16-year-olds out of school. Conversely, the lowest proportions of children out of school are located in the provinces of Bujumbura Mairie, Bujumbura Rural, Muramvya, and Mwaro.
It is assumed that in the future, fewer students will drop out of their studies during the cycle (the completion rate for the first three cycles is expected at 65% in 2020, compared to 61% in 2016; the cycle survival rate 4 is expected at 85% in 2020 against 81% in 2016), or that a certain proportion will move towards professional fields.
3.Student-teacher ratio on the rise
The latest value from 2018 is 42.52 students per teacher. For comparison, the world average in 2018 based on 88 countries is 24.26 students per teacher. The average value was 47.97 students per teacher with a minimum of 30.86 students per teacher in 1976 and a maximum of 70.74 students per teacher in 1988.
Since 2005, much effort has been put into building schools across the country. But, so far, there are classes that contain more than 70 students. With such a workforce, it is difficult to perform well.
In addition, it has been observed that some teachers are not well trained. The pool of trainers is sufficient in quantity but sometimes inadequate for the levels of qualification required. There is no training center for trainers in Burundi, all the supervisors are currently from post-basic and higher technical training courses.
According to experts in Burundi Education, the teaching career suffers from a lack of an evolutionary development plan.
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4.Health care in the education system
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, UNICEF in Burundi has been supporting the Burundian authorities in providing access to clean water and handwashing devices in health facilities, schools, and public spaces, as well as leading in awareness and information campaigns for the public on COVID-19 prevention.
In late March 2020, the UNICEF office in Burundi received a Global Partnership for Education grant of US$70,000 to support the Ministry of Education in planning its response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The ministry of education is planning for a progressive establishment of partnerships between local health structures and schools in order to ensure the health monitoring of students. Improving the availability of water in schools and latrines along with hygiene awareness-raising will help prevent "dirty hand diseases", including cholera.
In fact, the 2015-2016 statistical yearbook reports a very low rate of drinking water supply in schools: 1,014 public basic schools have a potable water supply in 3,952 schools or 26%. The same applies to latrines, the level of which is one latrine for 127 students, in public primary schools.
As regards pregnancies in schools, several actions have already been implemented by the Ministry of Education to prevent them.
Data shows that from 2009 to 2015, almost 12,000 girls dropped out of school due to pregnancy. Since the launch of the zero pregnancy campaign, provincial education departments have committed to reducing the number of pregnancies at school, with substantial progress made to date. In the period 2012 – 2015, the total number of pregnancies at school declined from 196 to 175 cases per 100,000 girls enrolled.
Thanks for reading
Fabrice Iranzi, RegionWeek.com
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