GPE HELPING NIGER'S EDUCATION SYSTEM ADAPT TO BETTER SERVE THE NATION'S CHILDREN

June 2021: The largest country in West Africa, Niger, remains one of the lowest-income countries in the world. As a land-locked country with 80% of its territiory situated in the Sahara Desert, it suffers environmental hardships that greatly impact Niger’s children and their education system.

With a high population growth rate and far higher than average level of poverty-stricken families, many children aren’t enrolled in schools due to the need to engage in child labour. Access to schools is also more challenging in many rural areas, with added complications for girls and their ability to attend classes. 

However, one of the most prevalent hurdles to stopping children from accessing an education is the lack of security. Displacement due to conflict and insecurity in the region has dramatically hindered many children’s chances of attending school. The journey to and from school is deemed too high risk for many families to consider.

Global Partnership for Education (GPE) funding, along with support from partners like the Agence française de développement (AFD) and UNICEF, is helping Niger strengthen its education system amidst numerous crises through partnership initiatives that are restoring trust within communities and encouraging school attendance with a renewed vision on security in areas affected by conflict. Schools inundated by recently displaced students were unable to provide the required infrastructure to accomodate all of the students. Now that this has improved, both former pupils and new arrivals are returning to education with confidence.

In light of the pandemic, educational facilities have to handle added layers of safeguarding to avoid the spread of COVID-19. GPE funded initiatives are some of the biggest driving forces to minimising the risk of increased school dropouts through sanitisation facilities and mobilised units delivering educational materials to children in rural areas.

The balance between responsive and longer-term action plans in Niger is helping keep the country’s children safe while also prioritizing their right to an education.  With funding from GPE and continued partnership working with the country’s ministry of education, Niger’s future generations are being given more hope for the right to a safe education.