Burkina Faso’s Head of State, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has expressed strong dissatisfaction with the courses being pursued by Burkinabè students on scholarship in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking during an interaction with youth groups in Ouagadougou, Captain Traoré disclosed that a government audit of students abroad found that nearly 1,000 Burkinabè students in Saudi Arabia are enrolled in Sharia and Islamic Law.
He questioned how such a concentration on religious studies would help Burkina Faso build its economy and achieve self-reliance.
“Almost 1,000 of our students in Saudi Arabia are studying Sharia. All of them are doing Islamic Law. How do we develop a country like that? We need engineers, we need technicians, we need people who can build machines and transform our cotton,” Traoré said.
According to him, while faith is important to the people of Burkina Faso, the country at this critical moment needs practical skills that can feed the nation, industrialize it, and secure it.
He noted that Burkina Faso cannot continue to send its brightest youth abroad only for them to return as religious scholars when the country lacks welders, electricians, agronomists, doctors, and factory builders.
Captain Traoré announced that his administration will overhaul the foreign scholarship policy to ensure it aligns with national development priorities. Under the new direction, scholarships will be channelled more into science, technology, engineering, mathematics, agriculture, and vocational training.
The comment has triggered heated reactions across West Africa, including in Ghana, where many have hailed Traoré’s position as a wake-up call for African governments to rethink education and prioritize skills that directly address unemployment and underdevelopment.