AFRICA/BURKINA FASO - SCHOOL ATTENDANCE RATE RISES DESPITE DIFFICULT ECONOMIC SITUATION

Friday, 5 September 2003

Ouagadougou (Fides Service) - Burkina Faso, listed among the world’s poorest countries, is living one of the worst economic crisis in its history. In fact the number of Burkina people living below the poverty line in 1998 was 45.4%; today this number has grown to 46.4%. Nevertheless the country has succeeded in improving its school system, in particular by increasing the number of qualified teachers and the rate of school attendance has grown from 38.6% two years ago, to 47.7% today.
One factor which helped this improvement has been Satellite Schools opened in remote villages. At Satellite Schools children who have dropped out of school can resume their studies and complete the full school course. LM (Fides Service 5/9/2003 EM lines 16 Words: 157)


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