The National Equity Committee of Guinea is a consultative body to the Ministry of Pre-University and Civic Education (MEPU-EC) that aims to promote equity between girls and boys and between rural and urban children in terms of access, retention, and achievement in school. As a part of its action plan in the context of the MEPU-EC’s Education for All (EFA) Program, the Committee recently organized a ceremony to distribute prizes of encouragement to 200 girls who received the highest marks on different nationwide exams at the end of the previous school year. The ceremony was held on November 15th in the town of Faranah in Upper Guinea and was a big success, with the participation of prize-winning girls from each prefecture of Guinea in addition to representatives from the Ministry of Social Affairs & Promotion of Women, principals and teachers from the girls’ schools, national NGOs, university students and journalists and musicians from Faranah. The prizes were given with the support of the EFA Program (financed by the IDA/World Bank) as well as the Population and Development Strategies Program of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). By distributing the prizes, the Committee hopes to ensure girls’ retention and achievement in school, encourage more girls to pursue study in non-traditional domains such as math and science and encourage parents to continue supporting their daughters’ education. Thanks to initiatives such as this one, the National Equity Committee, in collaboration with several partners, has contributed to an increase in the primary gross enrollment rate of girls from 19.7% in 1991/92 to 63.0% in 2 001/02, leading Guinea to rank first among African countries for sustained growth in girls’ educational participation.

Comité National d’Equité / MEPU-EC
B.P. 2201 Conakry
République de Guinée
West Africa
Tél: (+224) 45.16.79
Cell: (+224) 011.21.03.42
Email: [email protected]