Benin Secondary Education Support Project (PAESB)

The Benin Secondary Education Support Project (PAESB) has made strengthening of school infrastructure a top priority. Four administrative departments (Atlantique and Littoral in the south and Atacora and Donga in the north) were chosen for construction and fitting out classrooms. Over three years, 62 four-classroom units and 112 latrine units have been built. The French Development Agency (Agence française de développement) AFD has provided €10 million in grants to PAESB, which also focuses on the quality of education. In addition, students are being given a central role in the governance of their schools, where they are represented by a “government” and “ministers.” For example, Kouandika Idani, a 19-year-old student in the 9th grade, is “Minister of Health” at her school, located in Kouandé, in northwest Benin. She has worked actively in awareness-raising targeting the girls of her school, on hygiene and the phenomenon of student pregnancy. “The students understand the messages better and endorse them because it is other students who are communicating them,” she says.