Introduction [TJ]

6.1.3 Education and Literacy

The national illiteracy rate is very high among individuals over 15 years: 82% of women and 63% of men are illiterate. The cumulative percentage of children in full-time education (pre-school and primary) is approximately 84.2%. There are 5 793 general and vocational education schools with a total student population of 1 393 730. There is an unequal distribution of schools throughout the country, with the Dakar region showing the highest number - 900 schools from the preschooler to the university level. Dakar hosts the biggest university of the country (University Cheikh Anta DIOP) with more than 20 000 students. The literacy rate in Dakar region is close to 89% and much higher than the national rate.²⁴⁸
Nevertheless, if preschooler and elementary levels are combined, the national literacy rate for fulltime learners is estimated at 84.2%. This means that if the trend is maintained, adult literacy will improve with the present and future generations.

6.1.4 ICT Context and Infrastructure

Over the last ten years, Senegal’s progress in the field of communications technology has been remarkable thanks to SONATEL, one of the sub-region’s most efficient telecommunications companies and also one of the very few on the West African stock exchange BRVM (Bourse régionale des valeurs mobilières). SONATEL has successfully moved the number of telephone subscribers from 23 000 in 1985 to 200 000 in 2000, and the teledensity from 0.5 lines to 2.5 lines per 100 inhabitants.
SONATEL has positioned itself as a major Internet access provider through the SENTOO web access facilities delivered by Telecom-plus. SONATEL has also set up the Sentranet network that provides Internet, Intranet and Extranet facilities to companies. SONATEL also offers data transfer services that allow clients quick access and inter-changeable operations between different technologies, and has instituted policy to enhance the quality of services and the management of information transfer.
To implement these innovative projects, SONATEL forged a partnership with CISCO systems through the CISCO POWERED NETWORK, becoming only the second operator in Africa after UUNET (South Africa) to be a part of CISCO’s programme. Nevertheless, SONATEL is not the only large national and international Internet service provider in Senegal. Others include Metissacana, Sud Information, and Refer, to name a few.
There is no comprehensive and integrated ICT policy in the country, and none that addresses the education system in particular. The technological climate in Senegal is however conducive to the spread of ICTs, and extending ICTs to schools is just a matter of time. Some discrete initiatives have already been undertaken to introduce ICT in schools.
Recently, public authorities launched the LOGO programme²⁴⁹ at the primary school level - a pilot initiative that ended rather abruptly due to lack of resources. At the higher level, other ICT-supported initiatives are underway to promote distance learning, e.g. the UVA (Université Virtuelle Africaine) initiative at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD), and CAERENAD (Centre d'application, d'études et de ressources en apprentissage à distance), a collaborative distance involving universities in the following countries: Canada, Brazil, Chili, Cost Rica, Mauritius and Senegal. But all these initiatives are not seeking to integrate ICTs into the curriculum; a more holistic and integrated ICT policy, driven by the State, is needed for the country and for schools especially.
6.2 Project Background

6.2.1 Context and Project Initiation

Like many other developing countries, Senegal's population growth (2.7% per year) is a major problem - fertility rates are high, while the mortality rate is dropping. As a result, the country has registered skyrocketing population growth rates (3.2 million inhabitants in 1960 as against 8.5 million in 1996, and about 16.9 million is predicted by 2015).²⁵⁰ Senegal’s population has doubled in 25 years, and with young people making up the bulk of the population. The number of school age youth (7 - 19 years) has increased from 580 000 in 1960 to 2 605 559 in 1992 (1 247 693 of them between 12 and 21 years).²⁵¹
Beside rapid population growth, Senegal’s second major problem is the endemic environmental degradation resulting from drought and population pressure in urban and rural areas.
Due to persistent economic crises, in particular unemployment, most young Senegalese are not able to enjoy moral and material fulfilment in adulthood. Many resort to delinquency, prostitution and drugs. They indulge in early sex, putting themselves at risk of early births, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS. Surveys on adolescent sexuality suggest that over 50% of school age youth indulge in sex without prior knowledge of the risks involved. A high proportion of these young people have expressed the need for information on reproductive health and family life, and 83% of them agree that sex education should be introduced in schools.²⁵²
Adolescents’ reproductive health and their desire to organise themselves to preserve the environment, have only recently become issues of concern for agencies implementing electoral and advocacy activities. In view of their role and contribution in the economic, social and cultural spheres, youth should be at the centre of education, training and social mobilisation strategies, to ensure that the problems they are facing at present and the challenges of tomorrow are addressed most appropriately.
In an attempt to address these issues, GEEP and the Ministry of National Education (MEN) launched a youth education programme on population issues and phenomena to promote environmental and family life education at the intermediate and secondary school levels. This initiative was meant to raise awareness and enhance behaviour change among youth in line with the provisions and principles of the Education Ministry’s framework law, No. 91.22 of 16 February 1999 (Articles 1 and 3).
It is in this respect that GEEP has been drawing on the burgeoning growth of telecommunications at the national level to strengthen and improve the quality of its interventions in the school setting.
Two major initiatives are currently underway in Senegal dealing with ICTs in schools and for the youth. The first is the subject of this evaluation study, the GEEP Youth Cyber Clubs; and the other is the World Bank’s WorLD Links program, which is also supported by the Ministry of Education. The projects differ in several significant ways:

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  The “Cyber Youth Clubs in Senegal’s School Setting” project was designed to run for two years. Like the WorLD Links project, GEEP’s project aims to facilitate connectivity and pedagogical applications. Nevertheless, it goes beyond that and seeks to improve family life education (FLE) club management;
  

• 
  GEEP’s project is different from the WorLD Links project in the content of material and approaches it delivers to schools;
  

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  Youth Cyber Clubs do more than improve teaching/learning for students and teachers. GEEP’s FLE (Family Life Education) activities are meant to upgrade youth’s knowledge, decision-making and leadership skills. They are vehicles for behaviour change among youth and the wider community;
  

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  GEEP provides target schools with one computer workstation while the WorLD Links project generally supplies ten (including furniture); and
  

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  GEEP has set up its Youth Cyber Clubs in urban, remote and rural areas for youth, who once trained, can adopt and replicate a community-based approach to training to enable members of the community access and benefit from the Cyber Clubs.
  

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  From lessons learned in this project, GEEP seeks to provide references for policy markers when introducing ICTs into schools.
  

In addition, the Ministry of National Education has established the “Quality Education for All” programme, which seeks to expand and intensify the use of Internet-based computer assisted teaching methods and to ensure subsequent nationwide coverage for ICTs. Progressively, ICT trial programmes are being institutionalised in school curricula. This change in direction is expected to help formalise the training of trainers. In other words, trainers will be hired to train or initiate other teachers/trainers and students progressively in the use of ICTs in school curricula (as a cross-cutting discipline) and during initial training at the ENS.

In Senegal, the IDRC has been collaborating closely with GEEP²⁵³ to open in-school Youth Cyber Clubs (Cyber Jeunes) at the intermediate and secondary levels. This school networking initiative falls within efforts envisaged by national education authorities to revitalise the education system. Shortly after the initiative was launched, it drew support from public departments such as the Directorate for General Intermediate and Secondary Education, and long-standing technical and funding partners such as Club 2/3 Canada, the Health Ministry's Programme de développement intégré de la santé (PDIS) and Schools Online.
At a time when all sectors of society are concerned with globalisation and related issues, excluding players in the education sector would be an unpardonable offence. Though youth are presented as the adults of tomorrow and as future decision-makers, trainers, businessmen, politicians, or simply key players, little is done to help them grow to fulfil that hope. Youth need to be prepared early enough to address the challenges of today, and more importantly, the problems of tomorrow when they will be living in an information society.
This initiative therefore expected the use of ICTs for youth in schools to yield concrete benefits in teaching/learning, and improve the quality of education by contributing towards universal access to the Internet and computer technology.