o
Effectiveness of the child right to education in Benin:
264
According to the third general census, though primary education is made compulsory
by the constitution for children aged from 6 to 14 in Benin, it is far from being
generalised. Indeed, in 2002 in Benin, slightly more (51.31%) of school age children
(aged from 6 to 14) attend primary school, 4.4% are in high school, 3.6% have
already dropped and 38.8% have never attended school. Presently, there are fewer
girls who attend school compared to boys (45.3% of girls aged from 6 to 14 years
against 56.9 % of boys aged from 6 to 14 years). The situation is better in the major
cities (Cotonou, Porto-Novo and Parakou). The gross and net enrolment rates
presented below shows an obvious under-schooling.
265
However, during the past few years, significant efforts have been deployed to ensure
the application of this right. In 2014, the enrolment rate has increased, the gross
enrolment rate is 122% and the net enrolment rate is 98%. Gross enrolment rate for
girls increased from 84.26% in 2004 to 118.71 % in 2014.
266
Indeed, the Government of Benin has submitted on March 29, 2007, a funding request
for the FAST-TRACK initiative catalytic fund, which has been approved. Four other
technical and financial partners namely the French Development Agency (AFD), the
Danish Cooperation (DANIDA), the German Development Bank (KfW) and the
Kingdom of the Netherlands have provided a complementary funding in the form of
budget support. Therefore, these four technical and financial partners and the World
Bank have signed with the Government of Benin a common funding arrangement on
April 18, 2008, for the setting-up of the Budgetary Common Fund.
267
Generally, the fund is aimed at ensuring Education for All (EFA) by 2015, and includes
the activities deemed essential of the Ten-Year Plan for the Development of
Education (PDDSE) through 3 components: (i) improvement of the access, equity
and retention (ii) improvement of the quality of teaching and literacy and (iii)
improvement of the management of the sector.
268
The Government of Benin has negotiated and mobilised its Technical and Financial
Partners (TFPs) of the FTI-FCB program covering the period from 2008 to 2013, the
funding for a global cost of eighty-eight billion six hundred and one million four
hundred and forty-one (88 601 441 000) francs CFA. The respective contribution for
each partner to the Common Fund is: FTI (World Bank): 37 365 956 000 F CFA, AFD:
9 574 204 000 F CFA, DANIDA : 17 143 098 000 F CFA, KfW : 13 694 892 000 F
CFA and Netherlands : 10 823 291 000 F CFA.
269
The resources awarded by the Technical and Financial Partners (PTF) of the FTI-FCB
program are a sector-based budgetary support and complement the resources
mobilised by the Government and have enabled to fund particularly activities of
subsectors of pre-primary and primary education, of literacy and secondary and
technical education during the period 2008-2013.
270
During this period, the major activities realised by the FTI-FCB program, for each
component, are: