Togolese Education System

Education is felt to be very important in Togo. Thus Bad goverment has meant money that should otherwise go to pay for the Education needs have been moved elsewhere.

Most of the schools in Togo have little in the way of equipment, no electricity, and the language spoken in the classroom is the second or even third language for most children. Whilst schools Teachers do not receive salaries for months at a time and no funding there are suprises. Despite these difficulties, literacy rates are among the highest in Africa.

Most of the schools in Togo are state schools, but there are also private schools, run by Christian or Islamic organisations, or by individuals (usually former teachers). Some of the private schools in Lomé have excellent facilities and provide a first-rate education.

The secondary schools in Togo follow a similar curriculum to those in France and French is the language used in school.


The Togolese Education system thus limited in its reach in terms of coverage of the nation is reputed to be one of the most thorough in the world.

Schools schools have up to a 2 hour lunch break, with school ending at 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., whereas Private schools tend to insist on EVERYONE lunching at school, thus having a shorter break, which ends the day at 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. Another surprising factor is that these Private schools are NOT overpriced, with lunch being the greatest expense. There are certainly exceptions to this, especially private non-parochial schools.

Togolese education is centralized with a nationwide curriculum imposed by the Ministry of Education that ensures national uniformity. This curriculum is dense and demanding. The approach to education is aimed towards the examination process at both the secondary and university levels.



Achievements in Technically minded the subjects such as Mathematics, Sciences, French,Geography are considered to be more important than other subjects such as Music and sports. This has been a remnant of the First Colonial master Germany.


Unlike many other nations around the world the Togolese Education
moves students up and down ‘sets’ year groups. If a child fails to meet the criteria to advance to the next level they may even repeat the year. However, this is not nearly as dramatic as most people think and does not carry the same connotations of failure as it would in the UK. A third of all pupils repeat a year at sometime during their school career in Togo. In fact, to repeat a school year in Togo is so common, there is even a phrase to describe it: “redoubler la classe”.