Impact of school repeating on education expenditure in Benin

For many years, the efforts of the public authorities in the Republic of Benin have focused on children's access to school; this, in line with the international commitments made by Benin at the Dakar Forum in 2000. In this sense, many barriers hindering children's access and participation in school have been removed. These measures, including free school fees, the creation and expansion of school canteens, have been beneficial in that they have opened up access to school to thousands of children who were initially deprived of it. This quantitative progress poorly conceals the difficulties encountered by the Beninese education system in general and primary education in particular despite the various policies to improve the quality of education undertaken in recent years and which include providing school textbooks to students, improving teacher qualifications through the reopening of Teacher Training Colleges (ENI), improving teaching processes, etc. In short, the annual results obtained are not up to the financial investments made by successive governments, supported by development partners. The Beninese education system still displays high repeat rates, despite the automatic transition policies initiated between primary school sub-cycles. This research therefore focuses on the issue of transforming education financial resources into results and, therefore, on the efficiency of public education spending given that Benin, a country registered with the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, has very limited financial resources. It aims to contribute to resolving an issue that is currently agitating the Beninese education community.