Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the challenges facing formal education in Benin, using a rural area in the north of the country as a case study. It aims to understand the issues surrounding the education crisis in Benin.

Paper long abstract:

Since the 1990s, many efforts have been made to improve the level of education in developing countries. The various international conferences on education held in Africa ( Dakar, 2000) and Asia (Jomtien, 1990; Incheon, 2016) have promoted mass enrolment. This mass enrolment of children has created a number of challenges for the education systems of African countries. These include teacher overload, falling standards, mass dropout rates, training that is ill-suited to the labour market, etc., all unexpected effects that are undermining the performance of the education system in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Benin. In the face of this crisis, which continues to cast a shadow over the lives of the various actors in the education community, the education system is trying, albeit with difficulty, to perform well in order to maintain its importance as a vector of development and as a bearer of a better future for the population. Using a mixed approach (quantitative and qualitative), this article looks at formal education in rural areas of northern Benin and analyses its capacity to cope with disenchantment. It examines the challenges faced by schools and explores the reasons why young people turn to other alternatives rather than school.