Baccalauréat · Série A · Anglais — 2023

Text — The girl who stayed at school

When Aminata turned fourteen, her uncle came to the house with a proposal. A trader from the next province was looking for a wife, and he was ready to pay well. Her father listened in silence. In the village, three of her friends had already left school that year for the same reason.

What saved Aminata was a school teacher who walked six kilometres to speak to her parents. He did not argue about tradition. He simply showed them the results of the last examination, where their daughter had come first out of eighty pupils. Then he asked one question: what would she become if she were allowed to continue?

Twelve years later, Aminata is a nurse in the district hospital. Every month she sends money home, and her younger sisters are still at school. Her father, who once hesitated, now tells anyone who will listen that educating a girl is the best investment a family can make.

Her story is encouraging, but it should not comfort us too quickly. Aminata was lucky: a teacher took the trouble to walk. Thousands of girls have no such teacher, and their names appear in no article. A country cannot build its future on luck.