I&P takes the floor at Advans Côte d'Ivoire's special Education Meet-up

The beginning of school is a key moment in Ivorian society. It is also an opportunity to question the national education system's evolution.

On September 10, 2021, Advans Côte d'Ivoire, a microcredit company for SMEs, gathered a panel for their event called "Special Meet-up" around a key question: "Education system in Côte d'Ivoire, what challenges for school leaders and learners?

 Discover the conference in the video

  Find out more about our program I&P Education to Employment

Moderated by Miriam Djibo, General Manager of Advans Côte d'Ivoire, this meeting gave the floor to various actors of the Ivorian educational ecosystem:

• Adama Fofana, Investment Officer Comoé Capital
• Blanche Okou, Founder of the CEFIAT school group
• Christelle Hien-Kouamé, Country Manager Eneza Education
• Yolande Gueye-Oue, Administrative and Financial Director of the Lavoisier school group

Together, they discussed the role of the private sector in education, the financing needs of entrepreneurs, the reality of school for all, and the evolution of the sector in the face of digital technology.

The exchange then turned to the 2019-2020 Educational Systems Analysis Program (PASEC) report's results¹. This report revealed the flaws of the national education system in view of the Ivorian students' poor grades.

For Adama FOFANA, part of the problem is explained by the mismatch between training and the labor market, a situation partly caused by the inadequacy and unbalanced distribution of resources for education. Indeed, in 2014, primary education was the level of education capturing the largest share of total education spending (36%), followed by junior general secondary (22%), then higher and senior general secondary with shares of 17% and 13% respectively. Vocational and technical training accounted for 8% of total education spending. Literacy and non-formal education and pre-school received a much smaller share of funding at 1% and 3% respectively of total education expenditure².

He also recalled the need to include the private sector to accompany the public sector, both in terms of training and financing, to meet the challenges of education in Côte d'Ivoire.

Based on this observation, Investisseurs & Partenaires has developed the I&P Education to Employment program. This program has recently concluded a partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. Implemented over three years in three African countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Senegal), it aims to make education a driver of human capital development and improve the employability of African youth. It aims to strengthen the accessibility and quality of the education and training offer, with a particular focus on social inclusion, employability monitoring, and digitalization.

^{1 http://www.pasec.confemen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/RapportPasec2019_sitePasec.pdf}

^{2 http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/rapport-national-cne-rci.pdf}