Educational Justice through Boarding Schools in Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

This article analyzes the role and challenges of public boarding schools in Côte d’Ivoire, based on a study conducted in two institutions in Dabou: Lycée Moderne Leboutou and Collège Moderne Bessio De Lambert. Originally created to promote equal opportunity, these boarding schools mainly host students from low-income and rural families. Today, they face serious difficulties such as deteriorating infrastructure, insufficient meals, and limited supervision, which threaten their educational mission. Using the theoretical frameworks of Rawls, Sen, Bourdieu, and Dubet, this study highlights the contradictions between the ideal of educational justice and the realities observed in practice. Despite their current limitations, boarding schools remain spaces that foster discipline, solidarity, and academic achievement. The article recommends the rehabilitation of infrastructures and greater involvement of local authorities to restore the role of these institutions as instruments of educational justice.