This story by Jean Sovon and Laura originally appeared on Global Voices on September 25, 2025
In Togo, a national initiative built on civic solidarity helps relieve parents’ yearly back-to-school expenses.
Education is free and compulsory throughout the country, with a population of over 9.5 million. Following a two-month break (from mid-July to mid-September), more than 3 million students returned to school this month. While the authorities continue to work on improving education through teacher training and recruitment, investing in renovations and school infrastructure, the parents’ main priority is seeing their children succeed at the end of each school year.
Over the years, there has been a marked increase in the gross enrollment rate and the proportion of Togolese students completing the school year. In April 2025, the local news website Lechiquier published:
The gross primary school enrolment rate now exceeds 100 percent. In 2023, it was approximately 111.70 percent, in 2024 it was 116.70 percent, and 116.20 percent is forecast for 2025. Similarly, the primary school completion rate increased from 88.80 percent in 2023 to 94.60 percent in 2024. For 2025, the government forecasts an increase to 121.70 percent.
This rate of over 100 percent is due to it far exceeding the initial estimated value.
Togo is one of five African countries with high enrollment rates in school, an impressive development stemming from the various reforms the authorities have implemented in the education sector. In 2008, Togo introduced free pre-school and primary education in the public sector. Since the beginning of the 2021–2022 school year, education in public secondary schools has also been free, a measure the authorities will maintain for the 2025–2026 school year.
These measures help combat inequities in accessing education. However, efforts, such as providing student school kits (notebooks, books, pens, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and school bags), are still required to tackle inequality and ensure universal coverage.
Togo’s guaranteed monthly minimum wage (SMIG) increased from FCFA 35,000 (USD 64) in 2012 to FCFA 52,500 (USD 95) in early 2023. Although this measure was introduced to support the Togolese working population of over 4 million, not all are content with its implementation, condemning the country’s ongoing poor economic situation and challenging living conditions.
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Given the financial crisis, parents’ biggest concern is purchasing back-to-school supplies and kits. However, Togolese civil society provides solutions. Citizens, both young and old, are quick to lend their support to help parents meet these expenses.
Numerous citizens, working as part of various associations, travel to the country’s villages and remote areas, assisting and supporting children, especially the most vulnerable. These efforts are a social and solidarity-based alternative to the associations committed to child protection, education, and development.
One example is Ligue Togolaise pour la Protection de l'Enfance (the Togolese Child Protection Association or LTPE). On August 29, 2025, LTPE supported 5,000 children from 12 villages of the Amou Prefecture in the Plateaux region.
On August 29, 2025, more than 5,000 children from 12 different locations in the Amou Prefecture received school kits through the #LTPE initiative ‘Education for All: One student, one kit, one life choice.’
In an interview with Togolese media outlet Plume d'Afrique, Nina Afi Kazoulé, the LTPE coordinator, explained the scope of this measure:
We want to prevent school dropouts with this measure. We know that school dropouts can happen due to the parents’ lack of financial resources, pregnancies among school girls, or any inappropriate student behavior
In the village of Zooti N'titikope, Vogan, a town 45 kilometers northwest of the Togolese capital Lomé, the Togovi Bé Sourire association and Action for Peace and Good Governance (APGG) joined forces with several other associations on September 5 and 6 to support young learners. More than 300 vulnerable children received school kits, and 20 young girls will be monitored and supported in successfully reintegrating into school.
Lomé also has vulnerable children supported by other groups, including the Premiers Pas pour l’Enfance (First Steps for Children or 3PE) association. Its mission is to promote equal education opportunities through solidarity initiatives, such as the payment of school fees and supply provision for children. Association President Akilou Demon told media outlet Ledefenseur:
As children have the right to attend school, we want all children to have access to education. Some are deprived, and this is not fair. We aim to give them equal opportunities to succeed and one day contribute to our country’s development.
Although the results of various reforms are visible, shortcomings remain in Togo’s education system.
School infrastructure, such as classrooms, is substandard, especially in villages. Students study in straw huts with few school benches (supplemented in some places with bricks) and are forced to move or interrupt their lessons due to adverse weather conditions. In 2021, these circumstances led to construction plans for 30,000 classrooms equipped with wooden class benches. However, in September 2024, the government reduced its improvement projects by more than half, going from 30,000 classrooms to just 14,632.
While civil society can offset some of the education system’s shortcomings, it’s ultimately up to the state, which declared education free and compulsory, to improve education quality and train new teachers to achieve equal opportunities for all Togolese children.
[VP]
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