Education: a contribution of 50 FCFA per student for maintenance of the EducMaster platform
A memo from the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Early Childhood and Primary Education is raising questions in the education sector.
In a letter sent to departmental directors, they are asked to take stock of subscriptions intended for the upkeep and maintenance of the EducMaster digital platform. To this end, an annual support contribution set at 50 FCFA per student has been established.
According to the letter, this amount was approved by the ministry’s Management Committee. Departmental directors are asked to prepare a detailed statement of the subscriptions, calculated based on the actual enrollment figures of each institution, from the Initiation Course to the Second Year of Cours moyen. The report must be submitted to the Secretary General of the ministry no later than December 15, 2025.
Following that, several school districts relayed the instruction through memos addressed to school principals. They are asked to collect the funds and forward them to the Head of the Secretariat Division within the same deadline.
However, this measure comes in a particular context. While the state has recently strengthened social policies for students, notably by introducing free school meals in disadvantaged areas, asking for a financial contribution, even a modest one, raises questions among some members of the public.
Some stakeholders in the education sector wonder whether it’s appropriate to ask learners and their families to finance the maintenance of an institutional platform.
So the central question remains: are the state’s budgetary resources insufficient to ensure the upkeep of a strategic digital tool like EducMaster, or is this a complementary mechanism to make actors in the education system more accountable? At this stage, no official communication has yet clarified the exact motivations for this contribution.
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