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Senegal's First Elite Girls' Boarding School Challenges Patriarchal Norms
The school admits 35 girls a year and reports a 100% completion rate as alumni and mentors push students toward leadership.
- Located on Goree Island, Senegal, the elite Mariama Ba School provides rigorous academic training to girls, boasting a 100% completion rate while preparing students to challenge patriarchal norms.
- Although primary enrollment is high, less than 20% of girls finish high school in Senegal, where patriarchal norms prioritize boys' education and restrict women to owning only 2% of agricultural land.
- Through six years of training, students attend talks with successful graduates, which headmistress Ramatoulaye Diagne Sarr says empowers them to become "the female elite on which Senegal is counting heavily."
- Student Marie Diop, 18, describes "fighting a battle" for independence, while teacher Paul Felix Thiao notes the school proves that "if we give them more freedom, if we give them more opportunities, they can go far."
- While experts like Maissa Abdellaoui, a girls' education specialist with UNICEF, praise the school, they argue that achieving true female empowerment in Senegal requires systemic changes to ensure the most vulnerable also access these opportunities.
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16 Articles
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Senegal's first elite girls' boarding school challenges patriarchal norms
Off the coast of Dakar, Goree Island is home to the Senegal’s first elite boarding school for girls. The Mariama Ba School of Excellence encourages its students to challenge what has traditionally been expected of girls across the predominantly Muslim West African nation. The school has a 100% completion rate, and admits 35 students, whose tuition and board are completely state-funded, each school year.
·Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
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Associated Press News+12 Reposted by 12 other sources
This school teaches Senegal's brightest girls to push back against patriarchal norms
Senegal's first elite boarding school for girls shows how the largely Muslim West African nation has made progress in girls' education, but challenges remain.
·New York, United States
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Total News Sources16
Leaning Left9Leaning Right2Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution60% Left
Bias Distribution
- 60% of the sources lean Left
60% Left
L 60%
C 27%
13%
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