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Imagine Worldwide
The Sites

Burkina Faso


Our Current Work

Serving multiple government-run primary schools

Despite political instability in Burkina Faso over the past year, we completed a successful two-school pilot in partnership with Catholic Relief Services and support from the USDA McGovern Dole Food for Education Program. This has been an important test for our hybrid model where the program is both school and community-based and provides ongoing access to learning despite disruptions.

We launched the program in 16 schools in 2023, serving over 7,500 students over the next three years.

Pissila, Burkina Faso

Pissila and Tibtenga, Burkina Faso
Serving children through a center-based learning program designed for grades 1 to 3

Implementation Partner:
Catholic Relief Services

Current Students:
3,049

Current Sites:
16

Burkina Faso Impact at a Glance

Children Served

6,733

Program Sites

34

Tablets Distributed

1,077

Hours on Tablet

15,200

Early Pilots and Evidence Building in Burkina Faso

The first phase of our work in Burkina Faso was a pre-pilot in two schools in which we validated the suitability of the delivery model and the fit of our software application in this context.

Primary School Sites

Serving children through a center-based learning program designed for grades 1 to 3

  • Location: Pissila and Tibtenga, Burkina Faso
  • Curriculum and Language of Instruction: Math and Literacy (in French)
  • Research Focus: How well is the delivery model working? How suitable is the intervention for learners at the different grade levels?
  • Type of Study: Implementation Study
State of Education in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world for both child and adult populations.

In Burkina Faso, ongoing conflict has led to the closure of 5,300 schools, disrupting the education of approximately 820,000 children. Approximately 74% of children in Burkina Faso cannot read or understand an age-appropriate text by age 10 and 82% of those enrolled in primary school are considered learning poor.

Population: 23 million

Primary pupil:teacher ratio: 40:1

Primary school completion rate: 62% for boys, 72% for girls

Out-of-school adolescents and children: 2.9 million

Adult literacy rate: 34% (2022)

Burkina Faso Partners
Catholic Relief Services
Burkina Faso
Implementation
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