Côte d’Ivoire’s Education System and Its Impact on Ivorians’ Quality of Life

Abstract

Côte d’Ivoire, a West African nation, gained its independence in 1960 from France and was led by Felix Houphouët-Boigny. The country’s economic affluence was supported by significant exports of coffee and cocoa, making it one of the most prosperous nations among its African counterparts. Houphouët-Boigny’s death in 1993 plunged Côte d’Ivoire in a prolonged period of political instability and civil unrest, which have been partly fuelled by the introduction of a competitive electoral process that has exacerbated tensions between the northern and southern regions of the country. These tensions culminated with the outbreak of the 2002–2007 civil war, during which Côte d’Ivoire was divided between the north, occupied by the rebels, and the south, controlled by the government. After a couple of years of peace, exiting President Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to concede to the controversial victory of the opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara in the 2010 elections fuelled hostilities. A military intervention and previous President Gbagbo’s arrest in April 2011 put an end to the crisis, after which Ouattara assumed the presidency. Previously seen as one of West Africa’s education pillar, Côte d’Ivoire’s education system has rapidly broken down, hence causing the loss of significant infrastructure and a decline in literacy and numeracy test scores (Groupe de la Banque Mondiale, Situation économique en Côte d’Ivoire 4:1–43, 2017). As such, the various recession periods combined with the lack of safety and the political instability of Côte d’Ivoire have significantly impacted the education system. Hence, this chapter offers an overview of the Ivorian education system and also highlights its current status. With its objective to achieve emerging market status by 2020, Côte d’Ivoire’s government emphasize the need to invest in its human capital by revamping its education sector. Thus, the chapter further discusses the various reforms and development plans implemented to not only improve education in Côte d’Ivoire but also to ameliorate the youth’s overall quality of life and chance of success. However, these improvement plans have not entirely generated the expected results, hence jeopardizing the country’s vision of becoming an emerging market by 2020. Simply put, the chapter addresses whether the government’s efforts along with sizable cash investments have had a positive impact on the quality of life of Ivorians.