Table: Trend of the GER at the primary level over the period 2012-2015 School –Age Population scolarisable Number of Pupils Educated (GER) 2012-2013 3,314,672 3,021,417 91.20% 2013-2014 3,353,810 3,176,874 94.70% 2014-2015 3,531,746 3,370,558 95.50% Secondary Education: Improvement in the School Environment and Trend of the List of Schools In order to improve the school environment, the government has recruited 3,000 teachers and initiated capacity strengthening seminars for them. This measure was handled by the Presidential Emergency Programme (PPU) as part of the government decentralization process in the CNO areas. It has made up for the shortfall in the numbers of teachers in general particularly in this area. On the development of infrastructure, the action of the government included an increase in the number of colleges and, by extension, that of classrooms. Thus, since 2011, 15,313 classrooms have been constructed. This corresponds to 2,188 primary schools and 170 secondary schools, including 11 community colleges. With regard to enrolment for general secondary education, the public and private sectors are on an equal footing, while for technical secondary education, the private sector is predominant with 94.94 % of the pupils, leaving only 5.06% for the public sector. Pupils enrolled in these establishments are fully taken care of by the State. In the area of infrastructure, out of a total of 1,373, 362 general secondary schools are public. Concerning technical education, only three are public, as against 288 private ones. With regard to human resources, there are 22,584 teachers. Higher Education Since 2011, higher education has undergone a major shakeup with the establishment of two (2) new universities – the Péléforo Gbon Coulibaly University in Korhogo and the Lorougnon Guédé University in Daloa. This has undoubtedly led to an increase in and diversification of courses offered by the extension of the list of universities through an increase in the number of training institutes. Thus, in the public sector, there are five (5) universities, plus thirty-one (31)prestigious public higher institutions, including the specialized higher institutions such as the Houphouët Boigny National Polytechnic (INPHB) in Yamoussoukro; and the Teacher Training College (ENS), National School of Administration (ENA), National Legal Training Institute (INFJ), National Technical Teacher Training Institute (IPNET), Advanced National Statistics and Applied Economics School (ENSEA) and the Advanced National Arts and Culture Institute (INSAAC) in Abidjan. The increase in and diversification of courses offered are also being intensified through the various training and research units of the public universities. Concerning the professional character of lessons, it has been observed that the university courses are characterized by the introduction of a Bachelor’s-Master’s-Doctorate (LMD) system. This has the advantage of getting students to earn professional degrees. Furthermore, the introduction of the LMD system for university courses has ensured an improvement in the quality of education through the use of information and communication technologies. 32