Two girls in Benin concentrate on learning the alphabet in the country's UNICEF-supported Education and Community programme. Rosine Mahinou, a mother of seven, never thought she would send her girls to school. In her village in Benin, most girls used to stay home to do housework or help their mothers sell items in the market.

But that was five years ago. Today, Ms. Mahinou has enrolled all of her girls in school along with her boys. This sea change in her attitude is largely due to a programme promoting girls’ education called Education and Community.

"The programme helped me change my mind," she says, sitting outside her children’s primary school in the village of  Dowimè. Next to her are her daughters Brunelle, 10, and twins Paula and Paulette, 14. 

"Before the programme, Paula and Paulette used to help me sell peanut cakes," Ms. Mahinou explains. "The workers advised me to enrol the girls in school and keep them there full-time to concentrate on their studies."

She holds up a colour-coded school report card, explaining how it helps her follow her children’s progress in school. UNICEF provides these cards, produced locally for two cents each.

Narrowing the gender gap

Ms. Mahinou is one of thousands of parents sending their daughters to school because of the Education and Community programme. It began in 2020 and is now running in 110 communities that enrol 25,000 children, helping to narrow Benin’s enormous gender gap in education – one of the highest in the world. Fewer than two out of three girls go to school in this small West African country, compared with nine out of every 10 boys.

Primary education is free in Benin, but uniforms, books and supplies are not. Families who cannot afford to buy these essentials for all their children commonly send only their sons to school. 

Education and Community talks to parents about the importance of educating their girls. This is done by 23 trained community workers, known as médiatrices, who travel from village to village, mostly on motorbike, and act as the families’ liaison with schools.

Jeannette Ahokpé is a mediatrice who covers six villages. "For parents who are reluctant to send girls to school, we explain what educated girls can do for the family later in life," she explains, adding that parents respond well to arguments demonstrating education's concrete benefits.

Ms. Ahokpé, who holds a master’s degree in economics, says that when she began as a médiatrice four years ago, many women were shy. “When the women were around men, they didn’t talk,” she says. “So we organized  a meeting of women only.”

“Now the women talk a lot more,” she adds. “And the next generation of educated girls will be even more outspoken.”

A new generation

Maria Ahodekon, a mother of three, agrees. “They won’t be like our generation,” she says. Ms. Ahodekon has no education and cannot speak French, the official language of Benin. She is especially proud of her girls for learning it. “I’ll push them as much as I can.”

The programme helps parents become more involved in the education of their children. Some communities help build their schools, and all are encouraged to maintain strong parent associations. Other innovations include a ‘girl-to-girl’ network where older girl volunteers help younger female students with schoolwork and their adjustment to school life.

Community-wide support for schools is enhanced through ‘partnership contracts’ signed with key community members, including teachers and local authorities. At the same time, women are helped with income-generating activities that reduce the families’ reliance on the money their daughters bring home.

The Education and Community initiatives seem to be paying off as enrolment is on the rise, especially among girls. In the Dowimè school, for instance, there were 77 girls and 100 boys enrolled in 2020, and that number jumped to 138 girls and 147 boys by 2020.

UNICEF is the main supporter of Education and Community, a government programme. In addition to assisting teacher training and the work of the mediatrices, UNICEF provides technical advice, school supplies and the building of separate latrines for girls and boys.

At the national level, UNICEF has funded radio and TV spots on girls’ education and continues to talk with political leaders to advocate more support for getting and keeping girls in school.

While girls’ education continues to gain momentum in Benin, Faustine Djoudjou already sees the profound impact it is having on her two daughters, also enrolled in the Dowimè school.

"Education can make you enlightened,” she says. “Education will enlighten my girls."

Source:UNICEF