A bright future for girls' education

Thousands of girls in Burkina Faso who would normally never have the chance to go to school are receiving an education thanks to an innovative programme led by Plan.

Photo: Finbar O'Reilly

The BRIGHT project – Burkinabé Response to Improve Girls Chances to Succeed – is funded by a grant from the USAID-Millennium Challenge Corporation and achieves high levels of school enrolment and graduation rates for girls by creating supportive learning environments in 132 communities across 10 provinces.

In Burkina Faso 73% of girls never finish primary school.

Many are forced to stay at home and look after their younger siblings and collect firewood and water while their parents work in the fields. Others drop out of school because it has no private toilet blocks for girls.

Working closely with communities and local government, the BRIGHT project ensures schools have child-friendly classrooms equipped with appropriate furniture and textbooks, a borehole to provide safe water, separate male and female toilet blocks for sanitation, and housing units for teachers.

The children also receive a midday meal and there is a take-home ration for girls who achieve an attendance rate of 90% or more.

Some of the schools also have an on-site childcare centre that allows mothers to leave their youngest children under safe supervision and let their older daughters go to school while they work in the fields.

In many communities, school enrolment rates have exceeded original estimates and some classes now contain even more girls than boys.

Kadidiatou, aged 8, says she loves her school because they learn to read and write and "learn a lot of things". She has already decided to become a teacher when she grows older.

Kadidiatou’s mother, a farmer and widow with four children, is also delighted with the project.

"Before BRIGHT, it was difficult to send the little ones afar to attend school," she said. "The child had to be 7 to be sent to school. BRIGHT schools give my children incentives to attend school with school canteens and especially the ration which is beneficial to the whole household."