Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.

Ndiarème B is a model of partnerships in action. Parents, teachers and mothers associations, a women’s collective and a network of volunteers are actively involved in managing the school. Since 1994, enrolment rates have increased by 30 points due to enrolment campaigns and have reached 80 per cent for boys and 77.3 per cent for girls. The benefits of educating girls are broadly recognized. Educated girls who later become mothers are likely to have healthier and better educated children, and they have better chances to break the cycle of poverty for themselves, their families and communities. Though getting girls to enroll is no longer an issue at Ndiarème B, keeping them in school is difficult.

            In Senegal, the government allocates a record 33 per cent of state budget to education and takes responsibility for the construction of school buildings and teachers’ salaries. Basic schooling is free and mandatory, and the government provides supplies for school administrators. Still, parents and communities have to pitch in and bear costs for water, electricity, telephone and repair work – expenses that force some families to withdraw their children, especially girls, from school. Girls also tend to drop out when they don’t perform well, or because their parents don’t see much relevance for daily life in the ‘Western’ education being taught at school.

            According to Ms. Mbow, “Girls, more so than boys, are often forced to drop out of school because they have to help with household chores, or they are married off at an early age so that their families have one less mouth to feed. Some may be driven to prostitution to supplement family income.” Ms. Mbow and the women from Ndiarème B have some clear ideas on how to keep their girls in school. “We need to serve children a meal at school so that they can learn better, especially those who are too poor to bring their own food; we need help to set up a computer workshop or some other activity to earn the money we need to pay for school supplies and repairs; a school pharmacy for first aid; and a school library.”

UNICEF

I. READING COMPREHENSION

A. Give a title to the text (01pt)

………………………………………………………………………………………………

B. Give two causes of girls’ failure in school from the text (01pt)

1.........................................................................................................................................

2………………………………………………………………………………………………

C. Give two advantages of girls’ education from the text (01pt)

1………………………………………………………………………………………………

2………………………………………………………………………………………………

D. Contextual referencing: What do the underlined words refer to in the text? (01pt)

They (paragraph 1): …………………………………………..

Some (paragraph 3): …………………………………………..

E. Say if these statements are true or false and justify by quoting from the text (03)

1) Enrolling girls is more difficult than maintaining them at school.

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

2) In Senegal, schooling is free and all the supplies are taken in charge by the government.

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

3) Ndiarème B needs more help and assistance.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

F. Vocabulary in context: find in the text synonyms for the following words (01pt)

Persons who work freely and willingly (para1): …………………………………

Domestic (para3): …………………………

II. LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

A. Complete this story with the right forms or tenses. (02pts)

“I remember my first day at school; I was looking forward to……………………. (enter) in my classroom. After three years of studies I……………………… (decide) to stop because my father could no longer……………….. (pay) my school fees. Finally it was my uncle who helped me. Today I have succeeded but I know that my daughter………………… (not/suffer) as I did when I was a little girls”.

B. Fill in the gaps with the most appropriate questions answers and tags. (03pts)

Aicha: I hope that you are a student,……………………………… ?

Mai: No, I………………………….

Aicha: ………………………………………………………………………….. ?

Mai: Because a place of a girl is not at school but at home next to her mother.

Aicha: You are right but you should go to school to become a leader.

Mai: For any girl, her mother must be her very school,………………………..?

Aicha: Yes…………………, but you should learn to read and write.

Mai: ……………………………………………………………………………………?

Aicha: I have been learning for fifteen years and I will study three more years.

Mai: That’s why you know nothing about household.

C. Report the following passage. (02pts)

“All girls should go to school. If they are sent to school, they will become leaders and help their families and relatives” an illiterate girl has said

An illiterate girl has said that…………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

III. ESSAY WRITING: (05pts) choose one topic and deal with it. (Max.15 lines)

Topic1: A man said: “I am not going to scarify myself for the education of my daughters because when they succeed they will not remember you, all their fortune will be for their husband and children”. Do you share his opinion? Why or why not? 

Topic 2: Write a letter to the minister of education to propose some solution about the high rate of girls’ failure in school.