Millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of them girls, do not have access to primary school. And those children who are able to attend school often receive such poor quality instruction that they fail to acquire even the most basic skills of reading and writing. In response to this situation, President George W. Bush in 2002 announced the Africa Education Initiative, a multiyear, multimillion-dollar program designed to provide training and materials for teachers and students throughout Africa. Guinea is among the many countries already benefiting from the initiative: Teacher training is ongoing, textbooks are being developed and distributed to elementary school students, and young girls are continuing their educations thanks to a component of the initiative known as the Ambassador's Girls Scholarship Program.

Laura Lartigue is with the USAID mission in Guinea.

Africa's progress also depends on the education of Africa's children. ... If Africa is to meet its full potential, these children must have the chance to study and learn.
— George W. Bush, President of the United States

In June of 2002, President George W. Bush announced that the United States would commit $200 million over the period 2002-2006 to the Africa Education Initiative (AEI). The program, which is being implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is intended to provide training and materials for teachers and students throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

The three primary goals of the Africa Education Initiative are:

• train more than 160,000 new teachers and provide in-service training for more than 260,000 existing teachers;

• partner with historically black colleges and universities in the United States to provide 4.5 million textbooks and other learning tools in their local languages for schoolchildren in Africa;

• provide 250,000 scholarships to enable young African girls to continue their educations.

Additionally, the AEI aims to increase the role of African parents in their children's education by working to make school systems more transparent and open to reforms from parents, and to address the impact of HIV/AIDS on schooling and the education system.

At the time of the president's announcement, schoolchildren in Guinea had no idea that cities in their country would be selected to inaugurate two of these goals. Guinea's capital city of Conakry was the site for launching the textbook component of the initiative in May 2004. And in February 2005, in the village of Tanéné, 12 girls received the first funds and materials distributed in Guinea through the Ambassador's Girls Scholarship Program (AGSP).

TEXTBOOKS FOR GUINEAN SCHOOLCHILDREN

Singing, dancing, and smiling schoolchildren from all over the downtown districts of Conakry, Guinea, animated a ceremony held at the Frederico Mayor Primary School in May 2004. During the ceremony, USAID handed over 500,000 textbooks destined to be used by students in grades one and two throughout Guinea.

Guinea was the first of six African countries to benefit from the textbook component of the Africa Education Initiative. Textbooks and other learning materials have since been developed for and distributed to children in Benin, Ethiopia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa.

The textbooks for Guinea were designed and produced through close professional collaboration between Guinea's Ministry of Pre-University and Civic Education and two historically black colleges in the United States, Hampton University in the state of Virginia and Dillard University in Louisiana. Both schools are continuing the AEI partnership, developing textbooks for additional grades.

Says Kadiatou Bah, one of the Guinean authors of the textbooks: "It was indeed the collaboration that made for a good product in the end. We were able to formulate subject matter and illustrations for the textbooks that are relevant to Guinean children's lives, and the American universities helped us with the printing, which gave us this nice product."

In a country where the adult literacy rate is only about 40 percent and where rural children and girls in particular face daunting barriers to obtaining a basic education, strengthening Guinea's educational system by ensuring the quality of instruction is essential to the country's development.

Galema Guilavogui, who is Guinea's minister of pre- university and civic education, said in his public speech: "Our American partners understand that the success of our educational program in Guinea is a measure of the harmonious development of our country. ... Providing quality textbooks in sufficient quantity helps us fulfill an essential part of our program—improving educational quality—and will help our children succeed in school. We are extremely grateful."

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR YOUNG GUINEAN GIRLS

Dawda Compo, a small farmer from Tanéné, a village outside of Boké in western Guinea, looked proudly at his daughter Fatou, a 12-year-old schoolgirl who had been chosen to receive a scholarship through the Ambassador's Girls Scholarship Program sponsored by USAID. Said Compo, "I think the scholarship will help motivate her. It also helps take the burden off of us. I am a poor farmer, and I never got to go to school. If my daughter doesn't study, life will be hard for her. If she studies, who knows? She may even become president!"

Like many other community members in Tanéné, Compo has encouraged his young daughter to go to school. Because of the enthusiasm and the commitment of the community to promoting girls' education, Tanéné was chosen as the site for a ceremony to celebrate the nationwide distribution of scholarships to 6,000 girls in grades five and six throughout Guinea.

Twelve young girls in Tanéné, including Compo's daughter Fatou, were given a scholarship package during a February 2005 ceremony in which U.S. Ambassador to Guinea Jackson McDonald symbolically handed out the first of the packages to the girls at Hamdallaye Primary School. Also in attendance were Galema Guilavogui, the governor of the Boké region, American and Guinean education specialists, and representatives from the local parent-teacher association and the Local Alliance for Girls' Education—two groups that provide strong support to encourage young girls in the area to attend school.

MEETING PRACTICAL NEEDS

The scholarships handed out during the ceremony, estimated at $100 each, included money for schoolbooks, notebooks, a dictionary, pens, pencils, fabric to make a middle school uniform, and a small amount of cash to cover school enrollment and health insurance fees—all practical items designed to ease the burden of sending young girls to school and encourage exceptional students to excel.

Through President Bush's Africa Education Initiative, the U.S. Embassy in Guinea and USAID have put AGSP into place. The goals of the program are to promote girls' educational opportunities and to raise awareness of the importance of keeping girls in school until the end of the primary cycle. AGSP will also include a girls' mentoring program, innovative projects focused on girls' education, and celebrations of National Girls' Education Day.

Young girls in Guinea face numerous obstacles to going to school. The inability to pay basic school costs, excessive chores around the house and in the field, the responsibility of caring for younger siblings, and lack of access to a primary or secondary school close to home are just some of the barriers parents mention. Primary school enrollment for young girls in Guinea was 67 percent nationally but only 58 percent in rural areas when the AGSP was inaugurated. Unfortunately, the dropout rates for young girls from primary school are quite high.

SELECTING RECIPIENTS

With this in mind, the selection criteria for the scholarships address the problems faced by young girls from poor families, orphans or young girls who live far from their families, girls who are disabled, victims of early pregnancies, and girls who are infected with or severely affected by HIV/AIDS. AGSP also rewards young girls who are excelling in school, encouraging them to continue their studies and to act as role models for other young Guinean schoolgirls. The overall school and girl selection criteria, from which communities could choose, were developed by a national steering committee presided over by Guilavogui and comprising major organizations promoting girls' education in Guinea.

Says Hawa Sané, president of the Local Alliance for Girls' Education, "The scholarships ease the burden for parents in this community, who are very poor. We think they will also motivate young girls and, hopefully, will encourage other girls to do well at school."

In addition to the Ambassador's Girls Scholarship Program, a complementary program is being carried out in Guinea by a USAID partner, the Educational Development Center (EDC). By offering more than 2,600 additional scholarships to girls in grades five and six in Guinea's capital city of Conakry, as well as in rural areas of the country, EDC has helped USAID ensure national coverage of scholarships to young girls in every corner of Guinea.

THE OVERALL IMPACT

Guinea has benefited from the Africa Education Initiative in meeting all three of the initiative's primary objectives. Beyond the textbook and scholarship components of the program, teacher training sponsored by USAID is an ongoing activity designed to improve the quality of primary education in Guinea. To ensure the sustainability and long-range impact of the three initiatives, USAID is working closely with the government of Guinea and is currently the largest bilateral contributor to Guinea's Education for All (EFA) program.

Although Guinea remains plagued by a shortage of teachers and classroom materials, there are signs for optimism. According to the education ministry, during the 2003-2004 school year, the percentage of school-aged children attending primary school grew from 74 percent to 77 percent, and for girls from 67 percent to 70 percent. Increased access was particularly pronounced in grade one admission rates, which jumped from 61 percent to 65 percent.

The government of Guinea's firm commitment to and continued success in improving education sector management are reflected in the inclusion of Guinea in 2003 as one of the seven countries nominated for the Group of Eight's (G8) Fast Track Initiative, which aims to ensure universal primary education in Guinea by 2015.

A LOOK AT THE FUTURE

Although the first phase of the Africa Education Initiative is still ongoing, the program is already destined to continue for an additional four years. On June 30, 2005, President Bush announced $400 million for continuation of the AEI over the 2006-2010 period to improve the quality and accessibility of basic education for millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa.

The goals of AEI will be:

• train 500,000 teachers and administrators;

• provide 300,000 scholarships under the Ambassador's Girls Scholarship Program;

• develop and distribute 10 million textbooks and related teaching and learning materials;

• improve access for marginalized students and teachers to learning, educational materials, and training;

• improve access to education and training for out-of-school youth, orphans, and other vulnerable children;

• improve access to productivity-increasing job-skills training and development.