appointed by the state, parents are forced to recruit teachers called "volunteers" whom their pay. Following the announcement made by the head of state in his end of the year address in 2007, a decree signed jointly by the ministers of finance and budget, technical and vocational education and primary and secondary education in charge of literacy (No. 278 / MEFB / METP / MEPSA March 20, 2008) recognised the effective implementation of the constitutional provisions on free primary and secondary education. Since the school year of 2007, families are no longer required to pay school fees. Administrations and schools now receive state funds necessary for their operations. In addition, textbooks for public primary education are provided free of charge by the State which also provides funding to inspections in order to cover the "volunteer teachers” wages, who before the presidential directive were paid by parents. The amount of the grant per student is 5,000 FCFA in preschool, 3000 FCFA at primary, 3500 FCFA at college and 4,000 FCFA for high school. This has brought a deep relief to families, especially the poorest, but some parents lament the maintenance of the registration fees for exams and competitions as well as the sale of handouts being practiced by some teachers. Human resources According to school yearbooks, the number of teachers has increased significantly at all levels of education between 2003 and 2012: in the general education, it went from 15,615 to 34 851, an increase by a factor of 2.2. It is the pre-school which experienced the largest increase by multiplying its teaching staff by 4.55 (from 472 to 2150), which is explained by its particularly low starting level and a majority intervention of the private sector. The other education levels multiplied by the number of their teachers by 1.78 for primary, 2.76 for the lower secondary and 2.69 for upper secondary. Table 24: Trend of the number of students and teachers (2003-2012) Level Preschool Year Pupils Teachers 2003 13 256 472 2012 53 920 2150 Primary 2003 575 959 9244 2012 734 493 16526 CEG (junior 2003 137 826 4164 secondary) 2012 152 033 11499 High School 2003 26 411 1735 2012 69 662 4676 All 2003 753 452 15 615 2012 1 010 108 38 851 Source: 2009-2010 and 2011-2012 school directories, DEPS, MEPSA Ratio Teachers/Students 28.08 25.08 62.31 44.44 33.10 13.22 15.22 14.90 48.25 28.98 This growth is faster than that of the school population, which has been multiplied by a factor of 1.34 over the same period. This resulted in a significant decline in student / teacher ratios in the various stages of education, particularly at primary level (from 62.31 in 2003 to 44.44 88