My greatest reward would be to see these children continue their studies until the university

TAMBACOUNDA (Senegal), April 11, 2022 – Abdou Saabali, 11, wakes up very early in the morning to go to his school in the town of Tambacounda, in southeastern Senegal. A few years ago, Abdou had to drop out of his class - in grade 2 (CP), following the death of his father.

"Since my father passed away, we have all had to help our mum. I have four siblings, all of whom had to drop out of school. My mother is a housekeeper and the money she earned was not enough for all of us. My older brothers had to work to support the family. They sold peanuts in the neighborhoods. I stayed at home to look after my little sister."

Today, three years later, Abdou reintegrates school. He joined the “classe passerelle" (catch-up class) of his neighborhood, the elementary school of Plateau 2, in the city of Tambacounda.

The "Classes Passerelles" have been deployed in Senegal as a solution to enable out-of-school children to catch up with accelerated learning programs and thereafter enroll them in the formal education system.

The children participate in a nine-month accelerated learning program, during which they learn reading, mathematics and other relevant subjects to bring them to the desired academic level.

The learning program is aligned with the formal curriculum, promotes reading instruction in mother tongue as well as the acquisition of life skills. Upon completion of the program, children may, depending on their test scores, enter the formal public primary school.

"The first days of reintegration into school are always difficult," testifies Aissatou Dia, 32, teacher of the Plateau 2 school. "My class is a multigrade one, that is to say, a class that includes students of different levels," she explains. "But from the first weeks, the children adapt very quickly. Like Abdou, he learned to read and count very quickly, in a few weeks" she proudly tells us.

"I've been in education for four years, but this "classe passerelle" experience is quite exciting. I've been at Plateau 2 Elementary School for almost a year, and I'm already seeing the changes I'm experiencing" she confides to us.

"Education is a passion for our whole family. My parents were teachers, my brothers are teachers, I think it was a vocation for me to become a teacher. One of my greatest rewards would be to see these children reintegrated back into formal education, and that they continue their studies up to university," she continues.

"From my point of view, reintegration into the formal system is not only a question of education, it is really a reintegration of children and their families into society" she says.

"Children are making new friends, taking an interest in their own education and have sometimes become messengers to their families, to their neighbours, to their communities, where they live. We have had a lot of positive feedback from the parents since their children have returned to school."

In the Tambacounda region, the initiative has been implemented since 2016, having reintegrated more than 3,500 into the formal education system. In 2022, more than 910 learners have just been registered (against an initial target of 900 children) and will be divided into 30 "classes passerelles" in the region.

"We have had very good results, and the initiative has been very well received by parents," explains Babacar Diack, Academy Inspector, first responsible for education in the Tambacounda region. "We are going to speed up this initiative to allow as many out-of-school children as possible to reintegrate into formal education. We are calling on all partners to support us," he said.

Supported by UNICEF with the financial support of the Government of Canada, the implementation of this initiative has reached a total of 11,140 out-of-school children out of school throughout the country. Among them, more than nine out of ten children have been reintegrated into primary schools.

"The life of a child excluded from school is a tragedy of unfulfilled potential and lost opportunity. These "classes passerelles" bring hope to families, communities and offer a second chance to thousands of children to realize their full potential," concluded Silvia Danailov, UNICEF Representative in Senegal.