RERA: Gao Region of Mali
The rapid education risk analysis (RERA) in the Gao Region was conducted during the last quarter of 2015, by the Education Recovery Support Act (ERSA). Its purpose is to analyze the effects of the crisis on the lives of the populations, the school system and on the security situation, in order to design inputs and define the project's implementation strategies for the region. (p. 9)
It is based on the analysis of secondary data, particularly of the Education Cluster, and primary data collected by the agents of the NGOs partnering with ERSA: GREFFA, CRADE, GARI, Tassaght and SEAD. These agents have collected data under very difficult security conditions and have assumed a very significant workload. All communes in the region, with the exception of Alata, were surveyed and in each commune, its capital and another locality were visited. In total, 459 young people, half of them women, were interviewed individually; discussions were held with 46 leaders of community groups, 46 groups of women, and 93 groups of young people (half of which were young women). In all, 68 teachers from 37 schools and 36 communities were surveyed. Also, 19 district education officers were surveyed. (pp. 9-10)
The analysis of the primary and secondary data (mainly data from the CPS of 2010-2011) highlighted a very unequal education system, between the region's cercles and between the communities within the cercles, in terms of access to school (distance and socio-economic barriers), infrastructure, and teacher training, etc. The populations no longer have confidence in school and they criticize the programs, the methods, and education in the national language. (p. 11)