The schools in Togo The school system Primary school: at 6 years • 1. 2nd year CP1,CP2 • 3. 4th year CE1, CE2 • 5. 6th year CM1, CM2 Graduation: CEPD The Collège: (lower secondary) Duration 4 years • Sixième • Cinqième • Quatrième • troisième (final year) Graduation: BEPC ( middle school leaving certificate) The Lycée (upper secondary school) Duration 3 years • Seconde • Première • Terminale Graduation: Baccalauréat (the baccalaureate) University Course of a school year Divided into trimesters. The grading system ranges from 0 to 20 points and 10 points must be achieved. School facilities • School building • School catering • Teaching time • Teaching system • Teaching resources School in Togo Schools often have holes in the walls that don't let in much heat. Sometimes even the benches are missing. In Togo, children start school at the age of six. Attendance at primary school in Togo has only been free of charge since 2008. Since then, the number of children who actually go to school has increased. For example, nine-year-old Komla worked in his parents' fields instead of going to school, and twelve-year-old Céline herded cattle. Now they attend school and learn reading, writing and arithmetic. Not all go to school But 7 per cent of boys and 13 per cent of girls are not even enrolled in school today. Their family may not be able to pay for the exercise books or want the child to help with the harvest. They also have to buy the school uniform. It is not prosecuted by the authorities if a child does not go to school. Six years of compulsory schooling Compulsory schooling, i.e. how long the law stipulates that one must go to school, is also only six years. This corresponds to primary school. Compulsory schooling ends after the sixth grade. Accordingly, only 52 percent of boys and only 41 percent of girls go on to secondary school. Those who do go on to school, however, have four years of secondary school ahead of them after primary school. They graduate after the 10th grade. Only a few pupils go on to grammar school (lycée). After three years, you can take the Abitur. The entire school system is based on the French school system. At the end of each grade there is a test. If you don't pass, you have to repeat the class. You can do this as often as you like. If pupils do not listen to the teacher, it is quite common for them to be beaten with a stick. Lack of schools in the countryside There are more and better schools in the city than in the countryside. In the countryside, children are more likely to be forced to work and so they do not attend school. Or there is no school at all near their home. Often there are not enough teachers. Classes are very large. 70 or 80 pupils in a class are normal! There are hardly any schoolbooks. The equipment in the individual schools varies greatly. Schools without windows And what does such a school look like? Sometimes schools in the villages are simply open huts, i.e. a few tree poles with a roof on top. But if the school is a permanent building, there are no glass panes in the windows! You don't need them because it is never so cold that you have to close them. The buildings therefore only have holes in some places to let in air and light. You can see this in the middle picture on the left. In the classrooms there are school desks and a blackboard on the wall. The schoolyards are not paved and there is no playground equipment. What grows in Togo? Togo is narrow, but just as long as the Ivory Coast or Ghana. Thus, very different landscapes extend over this length. Mangroves and coconut palms grow along the coast in the south. In the savannah in the north, grasses and scattered shrubs and trees grow. These include the baobab tree. Trees also grow on the slopes of the Togo Mountains. Where there is still rainforest, there are precious woods such as mahogany or teak. Food in Togo Yams are the most important staple food in Togo. In the north, where it is drier, millet and maize are the main crops. The most important Togolese dishes are pâté for everyday and fufu for Sundays! PâtéPâté is made from maize, or more precisely, maize flour. This is stirred into hot water to make a porridge. It is accompanied by a spicy sauce. The maize porridge is often eaten in the morning, if one eats breakfast at all. The most important meals are at noon and in the evening. Fufu The national dish of Togo is fufu. It is often eaten on Sundays or at festivals. Fufu is made from yams. It is also popular in Ghana. Here you can find a video of fufu being pounded. The pounding takes quite a while and is quite exhausting! That's probably why mashing fufu is the only household activity where you see a man sometimes... Fufu is also eaten with a spicy sauce, which can be made from tomatoes, palm oil or peanut butter. It may be accompanied by goat or chicken meat. Meat is expensive, though, so it's rare. Bananas and beans, cassava, rice and noodles. People also like to eat plantains and beans. The beans are accompanied by gari, which are rasps of roasted manioc, or rice. And finally, there is also noodles. This is almost always spaghetti, which is then eaten with a sauce or as a noodle salad. Rice and noodles are sometimes eaten together - which is probably rather unusual for us. Vegetables include aubergines, tomatoes and corn on the cob. With the right hand! In Togo, you traditionally eat with your right hand and from a big pot. Sometimes, however, everyone gets their own small bowl. Before and after eating, the hand is washed in a bowl of water, which is also provided. To eat, the Togolese actually only need two or three fingers, with which they pick up the fufu, for example. You form a ball with a hole, which you then use to pick up the sauce. You can find recipes here www.cuisine228.com Easter in Togo Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday. Three times during Holy Week there are services and prayers, on Thursday (Maundy Thursday) there are services in the evening in all parishes where the feet are washed. On Good Friday from 12. On Good Friday from 12 noon onwards, there are various Stations of the Cross (with 12 stations over a distance of approx. 10 km) which end with a church service in the parishes. On Holy Saturday there are confessions (for the Catholic Church) and on Easter Sunday there is a resurrection service from 4.00 a.m. and an Easter meal at noon (at the same time as breaking the fast). But this time everything is cancelled because of curfew. Everyone should experience it for themselves at home.