Girls' Dosso dormitory takes gender balance up

Most primary schoolchildren in villages can't continue into secondary education, and the problem is particularly acute among girls. But a new dormitory in Dosso for girls who finished primary school is one of the activities enabling more girls to study longer. 

Plan Niger selected the 45 most academically promising sponsored girls from among the primary school graduates in the region’s villages, and now dorms them in Dosso, where the girls get meals, accommodation and tutoring. The day-to-day operations of the dormitory are managed by a local education-focused non-governmental organization and by the girls themselves. Plan Niger now intends to open a similar girls’ dormitory in Tillabery soon.

This is part of Plan's work to reduce and eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education. In the three years since Plan Niger’s 2001 baseline study, the percentage of girls in elementary school has jumped from 25 to 42 percent in 2004. Now initiatives like the Dosso dorm are enabling more girls to get a secondary education.