Research stream on Formalising Schooling

This stream of APPP research is addressing one of the key questions about governance for development in Africa, the relationship between public school systems and independent and more or less informal religious provision. The particular focus is on formerly French-ruled countries in the Sahel, where fully secular public education systems have been challenged in recent decades by the popularity of Islamic schools. The research is examining and comparing current reforms in Niger, Mali and Senegal which have in common an effort to adjust public provision to revealed parental preferences regarding religious education. The research stream is co-directed by Prof Leonardo Villalón of the University of Florida’s Center for African Studies and Dr Mahaman Tidjani Alou of LASDEL in Niger.

The central policy issues being addressed by this stream are:

• whether there are significant gains, in terms of educational attendance and performance, from these examples of ‘working with the grain’ of local society in the educational sphere; and
• the nature of any trade-offs between these outcomes and any other policy goals concerning efficiency or equity in educational provision.

An information sheet providing additional description and contact details for the stream is downloadable from here ( English 205KB). Downloadable publications particularly relevant to the stream include the Research Progress Report and Discussion Papers 1, 2 and 3.