From Intention to Choice: Factors and Barriers to Post-secondary Educational Decisions in Sports and Youth Fields in Benin

This article aims to describe and analyze post-baccalaureate guidance practices in Benin, using INJEPS as a case study. Using a mixed methodology combining qualitative and quantitative tools, questionnaires were administered to 104 INJEPS students, while semi-structured interviews were conducted with administrative officials from high schools, middle schools, and INJEPS. The data collected revealed that 65.4% of students did not receive guidance counseling and that their main sources of information are parents (62.8%) and friends (37.2%), while institutional supports remain largely underexploited given their virtual non-existence. In addition, the determining factors of choices mainly include professional opportunities (74.5%) and the possibility of obtaining a scholarship (49%). However, the lack of collaboration between high schools and INJEPS, as well as the lack of institutional efforts to provide clear and accessible information, constitute major obstacles. These results highlight that the choices of baccalaureate holders’ courses are influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, although the absence of structured guidance mechanisms limits the ability to make fully informed study choices. This situation, which is very detrimental for all actors, should be the subject of several well-developed reflections and actions to correct the course and allow students to make better guidance choices; this should allow them to have a better university journey.