On Wednesday, July 12, 2023, the first deliberation of the baccalaureate exam in Benin took place. In the houses and streets, cries of joy were heard. A jubilation that the following days will quickly give way to a lot of questions.
This year, there were 76,104 in Benin to take this exam, of which 63.08% were declared eligible. Throughout the generations, this enthusiasm for the baccalaureate has remained the same. The time preceding the proclamation of the results for certain parents and the candidates seems to be a real torture. I remember like it was yesterday, the day I was declared eligible. My first unsurprising reaction was a jump in the air followed by a loud cry of joy. I had just, as my mother kept telling me, to enter the big leagues. My head full of dreams and ambitions, I had only one desire, to take on the universe that was waiting for me. At the time, I was far from imagining that life after the baccalaureate was anything but a long peaceful river.
The management of the Baccalaureate Office in Cotonou. Photo credit: Aimé DA CRUZ
The puzzle of the choice of sector
It was only the day after the announcement of the results and I was already faced with a dilemma. Which sector to choose? In Africa, what to do after the baccalaureate is too often relegated to the background. ” I’ll think about it once I get my baccalaureate “, told me a young teenager from my neighborhood when I asked him the question to know what he planned to do after the baccalaureate. It’s an open secret, many graduates choose courses that an acquaintance, a friend, a relative or a teacher has recommended to them. Sectors which sometimes lead to unemployment or in which they will experience successive failures, or abandonment. On the other hand, some will not be able to afford the training of their choice for lack of means. Still others will never see the doors of the university. For savvy parents, they got to know their kids. They know their skills and what excites them, and guide them not without taking into account the demand on the job market. Even so, some of these children whose parents understand the issue of the choice of sector, will have to give up on their dream sector because it is unavailable in their country. On the other hand, the lucky ones whose parents have enough means will fly away to other horizons.
READ ALSO
Haiti, we don’t forget you!
The hell of public universities
The images of my first day as a student are still present in my head. I had been told so much about college that I thought I knew it all. I felt privileged to be able to enroll in a school and not in a traditional faculty (where the chances of integration are lower). However, I was not long in coming to the evidence. Basically, there was not so much difference between the so-called professional schools and the faculties.
The University of Abomey-Calavi,
the largest public university in Benin.
Photo credit: Aimé DA CRUZ
My first disappointment was the very cold reception of the not very courteous administrative staff. Then, my second and biggest disappointment, the bloated workforce. We were nearly 450 registered in my course… And to complete the chain of disappointments, the mode of learning which does not really allow you to acquire skills. We have to burn and give back without thinking too much, as if we were using robots. At the same time, I also saw the ordeal of students enrolled in faculties. Overstaffed, mass failure, lack of lecture halls and lack of space. The total opposite of the better world we imagine before the baccalaureate.
READ ALSO
Benin: terrorists attack, psychosis sets in
A diploma that no longer has any value
It will be nice to ask the question, we will not be able to understand the merits of this tenacious fixation on the tray. A simple diploma that makes parents and learners run, and that plunges unsuccessful candidates into a deep depression. Ultimately, it must be said loud and clear; the bin no longer has its full value. In the past, if the bac aroused great interest in Africa, it was because it automatically opened the way to the professional world. Nowadays, the situation has more or less changed. Indeed, the demands of the labor market have considerably raised the standards. Gone is the image of ” We are ”, a white-collar intellectual with whom new high school graduates were decked out and who inspired great respect. It is not the low level of today’s students that will demonstrate the contrary. Moreover, it is now common to see holders of a master align several faults in the same sentence. In his day, no one told me. But, I finally figured it out. All in all, the ferry is just the start of an uphill battle for a place under the sun.
Photo credit: Iwaria