VZCZCXRO1976
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHNM #0788 2071631
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 261631Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY NIAMEY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2698
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS NIAMEY 000788 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT: FOR AF/W, BACHMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI KPAO NG
SUBJECT: GON FIRES TEACHERS AS NIGERIEN SCHOOLS FAIL A 
SECOND TEST 
 
REF: NIAMEY 746 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  Following the country's worst ever academic exam results 
(reftel), the Government of Niger's (GON) Council of 
Ministers announced on July 14 the firing without pension of 
19 tenured high school teachers and the termination of one 
contract teacher, in connection with alleged fraud in the 
administration of the 2005 school exams. The GON also decided 
that all diplomas proven to have been conferred fraudulently 
would be revoked. While applauding the GON's overall 
anti-corruption efforts, Nigeriens have mixed feelings about 
the results of education exams this year, the role and 
sources of corruption in the educational sector, and the 
GON's decision of July 14. Once the dust settles, this year's 
exam results may lead to a vital national conversation on 
school reform. END SUMMARY 
 
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DISTRESSFUL YET EXPLICABLE FAILURE 
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¶2.  Nationwide, 11.93% of Nigerien 8th graders passed the 
Brevet d'Etudes du Premier Cycle (BEPC ) middle school 
leaving exam). This was the lowest passing rate ever recorded 
for the exam. Provisional results of the Baccalaurat BAC - 
high school leaving exam), which appeared this week, showed 
that High School seniors fared no better - approximately 15% 
passed. This rate is expected to rise to about 25% after the 
oral section is administered this week. NOTE: Students who 
did not pass the BAC may elect to take an oral component, 
through which many can accumulate the points necessary to 
pass the BAC as a whole. END NOTE While the population 
expressed deep concern over these results, the GON and the 
civil society &understood8 the situation in different ways. 
 
¶3.  For the Minister of Secondary and Higher Education 
Ousmane Galadima, this "catastrophic situation" was due to 
"our behavior as parents'...'we have instilled a culture of 
cheapness and mediocrity to these innocent young people." 
However, many Nigeriens attribute the situation not only to 
the students, performance, the teachers, lack of 
motivation, or rampant corruption, but also to certain GON 
policies: inflated grading and "social promotion," and the 
hiring of large numbers of under-qualified contract teachers. 
Teachers, unions and civil society groups decried what they 
called the GON's "double standards" in addressing the exam 
fraud issue. They believe that the GON's firing of the 19 
teachers was illegal, and that solutions targeting only the 
public servants who took bribes - and not the influential 
private citizens who offered them - are unfair. Nigerien law, 
after all, punishes both bribe-givers and bribe-takers. 
Teachers, unions, with the support of the civil society, 
announced their intention of challenging the decision in the 
courts. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶4.  The fifteen-year decline in Niger's public education 
system has produced some particularly disquieting, and 
obvious, results of late. As noted reftel, the GON's 
successful attempts to control corruption in the exams 
process has exposed the full extent of the schools, failure, 
and occasioned some real soul searching by all parties. This 
process has been reinforced by this week's firings and weak 
BAC results. Still, the GON and the civil society differ over 
the solutions - most pointedly over the sources of corruption 
and the need for enhanced public investment in schools. A 
real solution to the problems faced by Niger's failing public 
schools would likely hue to a middle course - acknowledging 
that problems derive both from corrupters and corruptees; 
from a lack of public investment in education, and from a 
culture that increasingly holds up the model of the 
illiterate but wealthy trader rather than that of the 
well-educated civil servant or teacher as the symbol of 
success. END COMMENT 
ALLEN