Gabon

Gabon offers minimal preprimary education. Primary education starts at six and lasts for six years. In 1995-1996, there were 1,147 schools with 4,943 teachers teaching 250,693 students, 50 percent of whom were female. The student-teacher ratio is a very high: 51 students for every teacher. In 1994, approximately 38 percent of the elementary school students were repeating a grade and only 61 percent of the students who began first grade together reached the fifth grade.