In my town, it costs 10K CFA to send a child to school for the year. Families may have difficulty gathering this money together before the harvest comes in, so they may only be able to send some of their kids to school. In some areas of the country, there are incentive programs where the families receive a check from the government for each child they send to school, providing an incentive for parents who do not deem it as a priority or have the money. Students are also required to have notebooks and writing utensils. These are an additional cost to the family, and if the child shows up for class one day without these, she may be sent home.
While there are primary schools in most of the villages surrounding our town, many kids from other towns come to mine to attend middle and high school. Often, the walk is long and the heat makes it challenging. There are some NGOs who, in the past, have supported bicycle programs for kids who live over five kilometers away. While this is a wonderful idea, the roads are barely rideable with all the sand and water-warping from the rainy season, so it remains a problem. If a student lives far from an adequate school, they may be sent away to live with a relative during the school year who can give them lodging while they attend. My household has many young relatives living here for the school year. They’ll go home around May or June when school is officially let out.
People here tend to eat breakfast between 10 and 11 a.m. so students may go to school and then come home for breakfast. If they're in kindergarten, their parents are required to pack them something to eat, but this is usually only a small bag of cookies. In middle and high school, students might purchase a sandwich on the school grounds.
