The situation in Senegal

The country’s colonial past has contributed to the fact that, in Senegal today, one third of the population lives in extreme poverty and another third in severe poverty. This includes those who have to get by on less than $3.10 a day – and are, at best, merely surviving. This widespread poverty goes hand in hand with a low literacy rate: just under 43% of all Senegalese aged over 15 can read and write, with the proportion of women among the illiterate being significantly higher than that of men (see the Human Development Index of the UN Development Programme, UNDP). There are many reasons for the low literacy rate, particularly among women: apart from the fact that there are too few schools in many neighbourhoods, families often lack the money for the necessary school supplies, the journeys to school are long and fraught with obstacles, and transport is unreliable and expensive. And although school attendance is compulsory up to the age of 16, girls in particular often drop out of school early to help support their families with simple jobs or because they are married off at a young age; moreover, there are no alternatives for children who fail to meet the minimum requirements in state schools: they are excluded from school. Finally, children who do not have a birth certificate – often due to difficult family circumstances or a migrant background – fall through the bureaucratic net: as they are not officially registered anywhere, they are often denied the right to education.