Our tour company arranged for us to visit a primary school in Togoville, Togo. Togoville is down the coast from Lome and sits on the northern shore of Lake Togo. Our group took a boat across the lake to the town of Togoville and the primary school. We visited 6-7 year olds, 9-10 year olds, and 11-12 year old classes.

In the first photo below, our local guide is in the center and giving our group's gift of pencils, books, etc. to the principal, who is on the right.

These children work under very minimal conditions. Below are some of the 6-7 year old class.

Class sizes go up to sixty (60) students in a class. And don't forget about the heat and humidity.

The students have no books. All learning materials are written on the blackboard and the students must write the information into their notebooks.

Everything is in French in Togo.

School is free in Togo but the students must purchase their own supplies. For this reason, girls are often not sent to school.

Below is a girl in the 11-12 classroom and you can see she is writing in her notebook.