This study describes the educational system and discusses major educational trends and problems in elementary, secondary, higher, agricultural, and vocational education of four major French speaking West African countries since their achievement of independence. One major problem considered is that rapid expansion of educational opportunity in terms of existing formal systems cannot be maintained in the 1970's because of limited resources, yet popular demand puts pressure on expansion since less than 50% of each age group attends school. Further, the existing formal education systems are not adapted to the needs of rural development--which is essential to economic development. A challenge for the 70's is to produce and implement new strategies for education. The book is divided into six main sections. Education during the Colonial era from 1870 through 1960 is discussed in the first section. The next four sections present Republic characteristics, describe the education systems at all levels, including information on vocational and agricultural education, and explain educational expenditures of the four mainly agricultural Republics of Guinea, Mali, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast. The last section compares major characteristics of the educational system during the first decade of Independence and derives generalizations concerning common trends and problems. (Author/SJM)