Miseducation

Marina is a student in the 9th grade and one of my good friends in the village. I see her and greet her at least once a day. It was unusual then when I didn’t see her for two weeks in May. When I finally did run into her, she was all alone at her desk with her head buried in her notebooks. She was busy studying for the state-issued exam to enter high school--9th grade is the last year of middle school here. I was proud of her and impressed with her dedication and passion for continuing her education onto high school, which is something not many Togolese women have the opportunity to do. A month after the exam, I found Marina at home with swollen red eyes staring down at the ground. Marina failed her high school entrance exam. She would either have to repeat 9th grade or drop out of school for good.

My heart broke. It is frustrating to observe how easily students can be rejected from an education they so desperately want and to realize how bright and intelligent kids are failing out of an already failed education system. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to be positive and break out of the endless circles my mind spins in thinking about how the education system in Togo, a system heavily influenced by colonization, is not conducive to a student’s best abilities. In the 7th grade class I taught, I learned quickly that the best practice to proctor an exam was to read the test questions aloud one-by-one rather than to write them down on the board because the 7th graders couldn’t read the questions.

Well into July, the students are now on summer break from school. Unfortunately for a large number of students, summer break may be a permanent break from school because they have either failed their grade level too many times, they have decided to stop going to school, or their family has decided they need to leave school. This past year, 55% of the 9th grade students in my village failed their state exams to enter high school. For some of that 55%, this is their second or third time failing the high school entrance exam. After three failed attempts, students are expected to drop out of school altogether.

Education in Togo is based on the French system, and everything is taught in French—a language that is not native to students living in rural villages. In my own village, six different local languages are spoken. A student’s first exposure to French may be when he or she shows up at school for first grade. Teachers will only teach in French, never taking time out to explain concepts and ideas in any other language. 

Middle school in Togo consists of four grade levels, which span the American equivalent of sixth through ninth grades. High school years are only three grade levels: the American equivalent of grades ten through twelve. At the high school, a student’s curriculum depends on the track, or course of study, they have chosen. There are three options which include a literature track, a mathematics track, and a science track. The track you choose determines which domain of work you are able to follow after high school. In order to continue on to nursing school, you must have completed the science track in high school, for example. For the middle school and high school, there are final exams at the end of each term. Also, there are four state-issued exams that students must pass in order to graduate or carry on to the next year of schooling. These exams are for the 5th grade, 9th grade, 11th grade and 12th grade. There are two universities in Togo, one of which is in the capital, Lomé.

Students in Togo face many challenges, and among them are:

• Slow Start to Schooling/High Failure Rates. The ages of children in a classroom range widely because the age at which a student starts school is not set in stone. Parents decide when children begin elementary, so a student could start at five years old or nine years old depending on the parents. This late start of school leads to a wide range of ages in the classroom. For example, in the 7th grade class that I taught this past year, the majority of the students were 13 to 14 years old, while a handful were 16 years old, and I had one student who was 21 years old. High failure rates of exams lead to repeating grades, which also widens the gap in students’ ages.
• Gender Inequity. In a Togolese classroom, you will notice a large imbalance of gender, with boys making up significantly more than 50% of the classroom. In my 7th grade class, boys made up two thirds of the room. Some families are forced to choose which of their kids they are going to send to school because middle school is not free. When a family can only afford to send one or two kids out of their five to go to middle school, they will choose their boys before their girls, which also reflects the problem of poor access to education.
• Teen Pregnancy. Certainly a hindrance to a girl’s education, and the reason why I taught a reproductive health class, is the unfortunate fact that there is a very high teen pregnancy rate in the rural village I live in and indeed throughout many rural villages in Togo. Many young girls become pregnant during middle school and are forced to drop out, likely never to return.
• Corporal Punishment. Many teachers rely on corporal punishment to discipline students in the classroom. While it is illegal in Togo to physically or emotionally abuse students, many teachers do not follow this law, and the government does not strictly enforce it either. For the Peace Corps volunteers who work in classrooms teaching English, one of their primary goals is to teach alternative forms of punishment.
• Lack of Access to Education. A challenge that harms a student’s access to education is the fact that school can be, and most likely is, cancelled when there is heavy rain or there is a special occasion like an important soccer game etc. 

I can’t change the education system in Togo, but with a strong understanding of the challenges that exist within the system, perhaps I can affect just a few students. I can’t help Marina un-fail her exam, but I will definitely encourage her to choose to repeat 9th grade so her education continues rather than choose to drop out of school altogether. I will promote and encourage gender equitable practices so that females have an equal opportunity for education. I will continue to pay middle-school girls to draw water for me so that they can earn money to pay for school. I will continue to talk about reproductive health with the youth and promote a better understanding of family planning.