Education in Niger

In Niger, children face numerous obstacles to accessing and completing education, particularly girls living in rural areas.

Poor infrastructure, teacher absenteeism, an outdated curriculum and a lack of teaching and learning materials result in lost learning time – up to one-third of the school year for many children. By the end of primary education, only 30% of students have mastered basic reading skills and 23% math skills, making it difficult to progress through the education system. The dropout rate for grade 6 students is 33% for girls and 28% for boys.

Given how much of the school year is lost in Niger, the government is working with GPE and other partners to improve instructional time for better learning and greater efficiency.

Niger plans to replace over 36,000 straw hut classrooms, which are vulnerable to bad weather and fires, and build additional classrooms, dormitories to help retain girls in secondary education, and learning centers in conflict areas to ensure the most vulnerable students have better access to education.

Additionally, reforming teacher development, deployment, status and career ladders aims to decrease teacher absenteeism and increase teacher effectiveness in the classroom; and curriculum redesign will focus on core subjects, early grades, use of national languages and scripted lesson tools to make the best use of learning time.

Transversal to Niger’s efforts to transform its education system is a commitment to gender-responsive planning and policy development.

As part of its investment in civil society advocacy and social accountability efforts, GPE’s Education Out Loud fund is supporting:

• The Coalition nigérienne des Associations, Syndicats et ONG de Campagne EPT (ASO-EPT Niger) for the 2020-2023 period. This builds on previous support from the Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF).
• Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage for the 2021-2023 period.
• Civil society partnership for advocacy for non-formal education led by Groupe de Recherche et d'Action pour le Développement (GRADE) for the 2021-2024 period.

Learn more

• Niger is part of the KIX Africa 21 hub.
• KIX research projects:
  • A New Model of Bridging Classes to Improve Learning of Out-of-School Children and Youth 
  • Data Must Speak about Positive Deviance Approaches to Learning 
  • Observatory on COVID-19 Responses in Educational Systems in Africa