Senegal elite girls' school empowers students to imagine a new future

Off the coast of Senegal’s capital Dakar, Goree Island is home to the country’s first elite boarding school for girls.

At the Mariama Ba School of Excellence, students are encouraged to challenge what has traditionally been expected of girls across the predominantly Muslim West African nation.

For Ndeye Awa Diop, arriving at the school as a 12-year-old from rural Senegal turned her life upside down.

“I came here completely shy. I didn’t even dare raise my hand in class,” said Diop.

Over the years, the sisterhood of classmates helped.

Now she is 19 and president of the student council, and about to graduate.

“I learned to be a leader," she said.

Senegal has made enormous progress in girls’ education.

The vast majority of girls are enrolled in primary education, at a rate higher than boys.

But girls are more likely to drop out, with less than 20% making it through high school.

“The current challenge isn’t access to school for girls and boys, but rather keeping girls in school," said UNICEF education specialist Maissa Abdellaoui.

The Mariama Ba school has a 100% completion rate.

In 1985, it was named after Senegal’s most famous female author, whose novels explored women caught between traditional upbringing and modern aspirations.

Only 35 girls are admitted every year from 150 invited to sit an entrance exam based on their grades.

Tuition and boarding are fully funded by the state.

The school stands on an island with a painful history linked to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but where a new generation of Senegalese girls is being encouraged to imagine a different future.