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Mauritania was the under the shackles of French colonialism for quite a long time. Public education was first started by the French colonizers. The first schools in Mauritania were mostly set up in the Senegal River Valley. The public schools in Mauritania were mostly in the south of the country and the students mainly comprised of Black Africans. The schools that had French as the medium of instruction were not openly accepted by the people of Mauritania as they preferred Arabic Islamic schools. In order to impart education to the nomads in Mauritania various mobile schools were introduced by the French.
The government after 1960 propagated secular education. Various teacher training schools were opened in this country to produce trained teachers who in turn could impart quality education to the students. As the attendance was not compulsory there were very less students attending schools of Mauritania. But the government took several measures in order to increase the literacy rates in the country. The number of girls enrolling in Mauritania schools was far less than boys.
A new reform measure was taken up in the year of 1999. Here a uniform system of education was introduced in the school level. The rule said that French has to be introduced in the second year of primary schools. English was introduced in the first year of secondary education.
A student has to study for 6 years in primary schools and after that in seven years in the secondary education. The literacy rate now is around 51.2% in the year 2000-2004.
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