Education: Benin deploys its 2026-2030 strategy in Parakou to reintegrate children excluded from the school system

The Minister of Maternal and Primary Education, Armand Natta, officially launched on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Parakou, the departmental workshops for promoting the Strategy for Strengthening Educational Alternatives (SRAE) for the period 2026-2030.

This new ministerial roadmap aims to sustainably embed mechanisms to combat school dropout and educational exclusion at the heart of local governance. The national executive now requires that the various municipalities systematically integrate this transversal issue into their development plans as well as their annual budget forecasts.

This new impetus aligns with the achievements of the Support Program for the Education and Training of Excluded Children (PAEFE), an initiative that has been deployed on the ground since 2017 with the financial support of Swiss cooperation.

This strong bilateral partnership has notably enabled the emergence of BARKA centers across the departments of Borgou, Alibori, Atacora, and Donga. These local community structures serve as educational bridges, providing tailored support to successfully bring up to speed and reintegrate out-of-school children or those who have prematurely dropped out of school.

For Minister Armand Natta, the SRAE is now the only national reference document aimed at coordinating, harmonizing, and guiding all public and private interventions regarding educational alternatives in Benin. Beyond purely technical and administrative considerations, this five-year plan aims to be a powerful lever for social justice.

Present at the launch ceremony, the director of Swiss cooperation in Benin, Gabriella Spirli, reaffirmed that this strategy concretely guarantees the fundamental right to education for every child, thereby perfectly aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which advocates for quality, inclusive, and equitable education for all.

The event also mobilized several prominent administrative figures, including the prefect of the Borgou department, Abdoul-Chakour Naro Assouma. Local educational authorities, municipal officials, and community leaders were also present at this meeting, demonstrating the collective commitment and convergence of forces to ensure the operational success of this new phase of educational recovery.