Paper short abstract:

My presentation will take you inside the classroom of a primary school in a Beninese village. You will see how pedagogical models and tools are used in different, bricolaged ways, than foreseen by international and national policy makers; with unintended social consequences.

Paper long abstract:

In my presentation I will introduce you to the day-to-day functioning of a remote village school in Benin. Using the examples of the competence approach and the politics of class repetition I will describe the application of pedagogical tools on the ground, which differs tremendously from the concepts that nurtured the introduction of these policies in Beninese primary schools.

The competence approach was introduced in a number of sub-Saharan African countries in the 1990s. In Benin the approach was implemented in 2001 and has ever since been contested by teachers who feel that this approach exceeds their competencies. Corrective measures have been introduced and teacher training sessions have been carried out. However, what one can observe in Beninese classrooms is often far from being learner-centred and based on pupils' competencies: Group work is reduced to a seating arrangement, and the self-evaluation of pupils' new acquired competencies is performed as an ever repeating ritual. The ability to speak French, which is the language of instruction but not the pupils' mother tongue, remains very low. Despite the government's initiative to reduce repetition rates between sub-cycles in primary schools, class repetition rates are high, especially in areas with insufficient teachers to offer the full six-grade-cycle. Pupils who have to repeat one class are thus obliged to repeat two years, as their school follows a biennial enrolment system. This leads to a long schooling rate for some pupils and to an early drop-out for others whose parents become frustrated with their children's prolonged schooling.