Decentralization in senegal - Ambiguous agendas for community education

Abstract

The West African nation of Senegal has maintained a centralized educational system since its independence from France in 1960. For the past decade, however, patterns of decentralization pressures in the international environment have shaped Senegalese educational policy. The education decentralization process in Senegalese non-formal education, particularly in the area of community-based schooling, has resulted in varied and often unintended local interpretations and reactions. This chapter describes the tensions and contradictions in the attempts to decentralize basic education and literacy arrangements in the village of Diatafa in southern Senegal. © 2007 Springer.