Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, and, despite indisputable improvements in getting more children into school in the last two decades, the goal of guaranteeing a quality education for all Malian children by 2015 is still far off. Nearly 900,000 Malian children aged seven to 12 are out of school, most of them girls. Moreover, those children that are in school often get a poor education because of large classes, poor infrastructure, lack of materials, and, in particular, a lack of trained teachers. Oxfam estimates a current gap of more than 45,000 trained teachers. The result is that less than one quarter of Malian young people and adults, can read and write, the lowest adult literacy rate anywhere in the world. The government has made efforts to improve the education system, but needs to go further to develop and implement a relevant and publicly-supported curriculum; to improve financial management; and to make the system of local government control of education work effectively and equitably.

Authors

Pearce, Caroline

Fourmy, Sébastien

Kovach, Hetty

Publication date

15 Jun 2009

Publisher

Oxfam International

Series

Oxfam Research Reports

Type

Research report

Share this page