Pété Ouarack’s leaders, parents, and students
promote and honor educational achievement

Who says you can’t teach a child to dream? In rural Senegal, they are doing just that. In 2002, teacher Ahmet Fall asked students in the village of Pété Ouarack, a rural collectivity in northwestern Senegal, what they hoped to do when they grew up. “Most girls”, he explained, “wanted to be maids, and most boys wanted to be vendors in the capital, Dakar.” The schools in Pété Ouarack do not go beyond the elementary level, and five of the seven schools are temporary shelters built with wood and millet stalks. Four children squeeze onto benches made for two. All but one school have no potable water or latrines. According to elders, no one in Pété Ouarack ever earned a high school diploma. Without local role models, students could not imagine anything beyond low-skilled jobs requiring minimal education.

When USAID’s decentralization and local governance program initiated a partnership with Pété Ouarack in 2002, representatives of the local council and community leaders quickly confirmed that their top priority was to improve the quality of educational services. At the request of the newly-elected council president, Mor Samb, USAID organized a training session in Pété Ouarack to clarify the council’s responsibilities and possibilities for action with regard to education under Senegal’s 1996 decentralization law.

Through contact with school administrators and teachers, parents, women’s associations, and local organizations, President Samb learned that the entire community was eager to participate in improving education, and they offered innovative ideas to achieve that goal. School staff, parents, and community leaders formed an education corps committed to identify, plan, and implement a school charter. Some of its main goals are to build new schools and facilities such as toilets and washrooms, raise funds to buy textbooks and school supplies, and promote adult literacy. The education corps includes a vibrant teachers’ association and a parent-teachers’ association (PTA) that provide important opportunities for dialogue and sharing of skills and ideas. The corps developed an education action plan, which outlines practical actions to improve schools and educational quality, such as parent involvement and public education campaigns. With this comprehensive plan in hand, the rural council has also found it easier to approach government and donor partners for assistance.

The success of the education improvement project has changed the attitudes of Pété Ouarack’s residents who now clearly understand that education holds the key to their community’s future. Through the revived PTA, parents and teachers easily discuss children’s progress – previously an intimidating process for parents.

“We have succeeded,” says Djibril Seck, Deputy Inspector of Primary Schools in the Louga region. “This partnership with USAID has been sincere, and it has allowed us to better engage with teachers. We see a high level of enthusiasm of students and parents. There has been a change in mentality of the population.”

Community organizations are donating funds to cover such projects as fees for students entering junior high school, and the rural council’s office now helps students obtain necessary identity papers that allow them to take exams to further their education. In July 2004, the community celebrated academic achievements of its students, giving certificates to outstanding students. Students and parents recognize the valor of school achievement, and they have begun to dream of previously unimaginable careers. Bator Diaw, a 10-year-old girl, wants to be a Minister of the State, and Balle Dieng hopes her four-month old daughter, “will one day be President.” These are laudable dreams that dynamic local government and civic leaders in Pété Ouarack are helping realize.