A final-year pupil in C, a science stream, looks for mathematics and physics books in the library at Cocody Modern Secondary School in Abidjan, on September 22, 2027. A handful of students puzzled over equations on the blackboard of an Abidjan maths class. Next door, the humanities classes were all packed. This is becoming a familiar sight across west Africa, where fewer and fewer students are choosing to study science. In Ivory Coast, just 0.6 percent of students sitting the baccalaureate in 2022 were on the elite maths-and-physics track, according to education ministry figures. Another 38 percent took the broader sciences stream, down from 45 percent in 2015. But Ivory Coast is not alone. Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal and Niger have all seen interest in science dwindle, despite repeated government promises to produce more engineers, researchers and innovators. (Photo by Sia KAMBOU / AFP via Getty Images)