Grade repetition in basic education in Mali: a challenge to be met

Abstract

This research is an analytical study of grade repetition in primary education. The aim is to provide a comparative analysis of the repetition rates of girls and boys during the two phases of the Ten-Year Education Development Program (PRODEC), in order to determine what progress has been made from one to the other; this will allow for suggestions to be made to stakeholders. Indeed, in the major guidelines of the PRODEC education policy (PRODEC1, page 5), the high repetition and dropout rates were highlighted in the diagnosis of the education system. Before the implementation of the ten-year program, they were 18% and 5%, respectively, in the first cycle and 17% and 14% in the second cycle. Reducing the repetition rate is an imperative that addresses a key issue of the internal efficiency of the education system. According to Jérôme Krop Krop2 (2015), repeating a grade (or doubling a grade) is when a student does not move up to the next grade at the end of the school year, but instead completes a second year of study in the same grade. This situation is described through a review of national primary education statistics on repeating. In this context, the repetition rates of girls were compared to those of boys over a ten-year period (2002-2003 to 2011-2012), corresponding to the implementation of PRODEC I. The percentage of repeaters in the cycle is the measure of the number of students who repeat in the cycle compared to the total number in the cycle. In other words, it is a question of dividing the total number of repeaters by the total number of students in the cycle multiplied by 100. In this analysis, it appears that despite the efforts undertaken by Prodec, school repetition did not decrease during the first phase of the program compared to the rate observed at the start. Significant progress was made, however, in the second phase. Overall, the repetition rates of girls are higher than those of boys.