Young people under the age of 20 account for 58 per cent of Senegal’s total population, making efforts on

     behalf of children vital to the nation’s future.

     Many health and nutritional programmes are hampered by a lack of funds and a shortage of trained

     personnel. Scarce resources have had to be diverted to respond to emergencies, including a cholera

     epidemic and flooding in Dakar. Despite these challenges, Senegal may be able to achieve several of the

     UN Millennium Development Goals, particularly with respect to education, nutrition and access to water.

Source: The State of the World's Children

     Issues facing children in Senegal

• Despite some progress, maternal mortality remains high.
• Malaria, malnutrition, diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections claim the lives of many young children.
• Chronic food insecurity threatens the healthy growth of children.

·        Traditional attitudes about gender roles persist. Many families do not put a high priority on educating girls.

• The quality of education offered in Senegal’s schools needs improvement. Completion rates, particularly among girls, remain low.

     Positive results

• The movement to end female genital mutilation continues to gain momentum. More than 100 villages have publicly abandoned this practice and also repudiated early marriages. Senegal hosted a major conference of African parliamentarians to broaden the base of national support for these positive changes.
• Senegal currently devotes 40 per cent of its national budget to education and 10 per cent to health care.
• Primary school enrolment rates for girls continue to improve.

     Child begging in Senegal

     Koranic schools, or Daaras, are widespread in Senegal. They have a long history dating back to the arrival

     of Islam and were originally part of the village community. Parents would send their children to work in the

     fields of the religious leader, or marabout, in return for a religious education and preparation for adult life.

     The succession of droughts here in the 1970s and '80s, and changes in the national economy, saw many

     marabouts and their pupils, or talibés, move from the villages to the big cities, where they resorted to

     begging as an alternative source of revenue. Some marabouts say they do not have the financial means to

     take care of the boys, and that begging teaches children humility.

     An estimated 100,000 children in Senegal are forced to beg on a daily basis. These children live in harsh

     conditions, spending most of the day on the streets, exposed to violence, abuse and exploitation. They

     miss out on basic rights such as primary education, as well as access to health services. Aid groups say

     nearly all the hundreds of children sleeping rough in Dakar's streets have run away from daaras.

     The Senegalese government’s efforts to end the practice of child begging are supported by organisations

     like UNICEF. With its partners – principally the non-governmental organization Enda Graf – UNICEF trains

     community leaders, marabouts and the wider public on children’s rights and child protection.

     In addition, women have been mobilized to act as guardians of the street children and to initiate dialogue

     with mothers of talibés, in order to facilitate their reintegration into the family.

     Girl's education in Senegal

     In Senegal, despite a large overall increase in female net enrolment (in 2003 at 60%), disparities between

     boys and girls remain and are reflected in a national gender gap of  6% at primary level. About 40% of girls

     aged 7-12 years old lack access to basic education. This increases their vulnerability, resulting in a large

     number of young female housemaids, young unmarried mothers, exposure to health problems (particularly

     AIDS and STDs), underage girls in prisons, and street beggars. Girls who do enrol in school are likely to

     drop out because of the challenges the system faces. 

     The barriers 

 

• Insufficient school infrastructure. Over 35% of schools do not offer the full primary cycle so children must travel long distances to attend upper primary grades. Existing schools are in poor condition and lack water, latrines, sufficient classroom space, furniture, and teaching materials.
• Traditional values and practices.  Many parents believe that formal schools can have a negative impact on traditional values and children’s behaviour. Early marriage is common, as is teenage pregnancy, and girls often bear the brunt of excessive domestic workloads and child labour.
• Curriculum issues.  Textbooks are gender biased and curriculum content is not adapted to students’ needs and backgrounds.
• Teacher issues.  Teachers are untrained or poorly trained and have low motivation, due in part to their difficult working conditions.  Only 22% of teachers at the primary level and 12% of teachers at the secondary level are female (UNESCO Global Education Digest 2003). Most of them live in urban areas so that rural girls have few educated female role models.

 

     Positive results

• Female primary net enrolment increased to 60% at the primary level.
• The government has increased the number of voluntary teachers from 1,200 to 2,000 per year.
• Two enrolment campaigns are undertaken annually (May and October) and support groups for girls' education have been established.  

     Sources: UNICEF, UNESCO, The Consortium for Street Children