Fun Facts: Student to Teacher ratio... and Student Success

Taken from the 10-year education action plan of the Ministry of Primary and Kindergarten Education (Plan Décennal du Développement du Secteur de l'Éducation du Bénin, Ministère de l'Éducation Maternel et Primaire, octobre 2006)

En 2005, le ratio élèves/maître est passé à 50.

On average, in 2005, in every region of the country, for every teacher, there was 50 students. The AVERAGE. A teacher might have 100 students, might have 20. That teacher may or may not be qualified. That teacher may or may not have a teacher's aid to support them. That teacher may or may not show up for class on any given day. Huh. (And there are many, many, MANY children who aren't even in school.)

In Ontario, we have policies to decrease class sizes (from 35 or 30 to less than 25 or 20 for the younger kids) so that each student can receive individual attention. In Benin, they have to do more with less, and are therefore trying to adapt their pedagogy to maximize the teacher with as many students as possible.

Le problème des écoles en sous effectif d’élèves (classes de moins de 40 élèves/classe) (29%) est plus prégnant que celui des écoles réellement surchargées (au-delà de 70 élèves/classe) (10%) soulignant le caractère perfectible des modes d’organisation scolaire et la sous-utilisation du jumelage des classes, faute de pédagogie adaptée.

The problem of schools with classes with under 40 students (29%) is more important than the problem of classes with over 70 students (10%), underlining the notion that there is room for perfecting the modes of organization in schools and the under-utilization of combined classes (grades 4-5-6 for example), since there is no adapted pedagogy. (forgive my awful translation here.)

At first this shocked me: smaller classes are better! Individualized attention!! Recruit more teachers! Pay them fairly! Get 'er done! Invest! Invest!!

Which is all fine and good, except one must be realistic (thanks to Jenny for pointing this out to me!) ... in Benin, one must do more with less.

Everywhere, we should be trying to do more with less -- being inventive is what got our Canadian society to the comfort level we now know. Going from small rural schools to computerized distance schools where teachers and learning can be shared. It's to the point now, in Northern Ontario, some schools share a principal, and the principal will discipline students via videoconferencing. Use what you got to do what you can.

In Benin, the issues are far more basic. In the Plan Décennal, they state some of the conditions for student success that we all know:
- students succeed better when each student has his or her own book
- students succeed better when the teacher receives training on a regular basis

and logically, we know that, "La qualité des infrastructures, des équipements, la disponibilité des supports didactiques ont également un effet net sur le taux de réussite" (the quality of infrastructure, of the equipment, the availability of didactic support will also have a net effect on the success rate).

Except it also states:
- students succeed better when there is electricity present in the school
- students succeed better when the classes are constructed with concrete walls (as opposed to being open-air)

I had to give my head a shake, didn't you?

Another major aspect that seems to influence student success is the proximity of the school to the school board. I wonder if we can draw the same conclusion in Ontario. Makes sense! The closer you are to the school board, the easier it is to get face time with pedagogical counselors, board directors, and the clearer the messages are.

Benin is developing policies to improve education in their country, but as in Ontario, you can develop as many policies as you want, but if the inspectors and pedagogical counselors are not trained in monitoring, evaluating, and supporting the teachers in the implementation of policies, or if no one monitors the implementation at all (or only monitors it half-assed), then you can never know if your policy is 1) being properly implemented in every school, or 2) successful until it either fails miserably or you notice great gains in student standardized-test results (and hope that it's remarkable enough that you can credit the appropriate policy change).

More fun facts from the Plan Décennal:
- more than half of all children who go to school leave before grade 6 (talk about a drop-out rate!!)
- half the teachers are not qualified (and they still need many more)
- great progress has been recorded in girls' education (yay!)

Alright - I have to get to bed. I'll end this entry on that high note. More girls in school! More girls in school!!!