Griffin Scott

10/17/14
Nambonkaha School System: Woefully Inept
The school system in Nambonkaha is the epitome of an unsuccessful and poorly focused
education system. It is a relic of the past, one whose very motto, (Union Travail Discipline),
calls back to a time of rote memorization and lack of critical thinking. The system is harmful to
the students, with many not completing their equivalent of sixth grade and continuing on to
higher education. The entire system is also mired in corruption and heavily skewed towards the
rich families that can pay to help their child pass into the higher education. The reasons for stem
from an unfair pass/fail system, corrupt teaching practices, and the cultural beliefs of the Ivory
Coast working against itself.
While the other grades have their own issues in the Ivory Coast, two grades stand out as
important. CM1, which is the equivalent of our fifth grade, and CM2, which is our sixth grade.
CM1 is much like the American fifth grade, with tests determining if one has enough points to
pass on to CM2 or not. This is a contrast to CM2, in which the determining factor of the
students advancement is a single nation-wide test. Even if a student worked hard the entire year,
if they were off the required result by half a point, they would have to repeat the year. That is not
the only fault in the system. In one case a boy in Ferk studied hard for weeks before the
national exam The proctor wrote down all the answers on the board and the whole lot of
students passed. (pg. 110) It is not only the systems fault, not by far.
Often, children do not even comprehend what they are learning, simply copying what is
needed by rote to pass to the next grade level. Learning disabilities are also ignored, as if they are

not problems that exist in the Ivory Coast. In Erdmans words The overall philosophy is perhaps
that of health and life in general: the ones who can tough it out will succeed; the ones who are
weak will not. (pg. 109) After CM2, the process of getting into a secondary school is inherently
corrupt, in which parents must purchase a spot for their student out of those that remain after the
city children (the ones who pass) are given a spot. The system is not fair towards those in rural
communities, and the people of Nambonkaha know it. They simply feel as though there is
nothing that can be done.
To change the system would be a monumental feat, given the state of it. Complete reform
is the option that would solve most of these problems, but not all. A system in which children are
graded solely on a final exam but on the cumulative points of their assignments, much like the
current one in the US, would work. If this problem was caught sooner, then the history of
corruption could have been stopped and reform would be much easier. As it stands, any reform
would need to deal with the corruption in the school system, the corruption in the government, as
well as the peoples attitude towards education. While far from impossible, reform would take
years, possibly even decades to gain traction, which is much too late for the current generation of
students. While Peace Corp workers like Erdman are a step in the right direction, there are still
miles to walk until the Ivory Coasts education system is anywhere near acceptable.