FESEN (Fédération des Syndicats de l’Education Nationale) is the Togolese Federation of Syndicates of National Education, founded in 1996. It represents all of the 16,000 primary education teachers in Togo as well as members of the Ministry of Education working on pedagogical and training approaches.

FESEN aims to protect and improve the education staff conditions and to contributes to the improvement of the quality of education. FESEN and Aflatoun International established their partnership in March 2011.

Through its teachers members, school directors and those responsible within the Ministry of Education, FESEN obtained the legal permission to pilot the Aflatoun programme in primary public schools early 2011. It also piloted saving schemes with microfinance institutions in collaboration with these schools.

Learnings from this pilot, from the the Aflatoun programme and the opportunities it had for teachers training, were shared with decision makers and the Ministry of Education. With the ongoing revision of the Togolese education curriculum, it was an opportune time to integrate Social Financial Education (SFE) in accordance with the objectives of the new curriculum.  The Aflatoun programme is expected to cover more public schools as the Ministry expands the new curriculum nationally.

The integration came with a need to train teachers on both the Aflatoun Programme and its pedagogical methodologies. FESEN took on the responsibility to train trainers within the Teachers Training Institutes (TTIs) in Togo with technical support from Aflatoun International. This is an ongoing effort that aims to cover all of the TTIs in Togo.

The experience in Togo feeds the Aflatoun Network and Secretariat with rich practical examples on how to work directly with the Ministries of Education and to best integrate SFE. FESEN’s next step with Aflatoun International is to support the newly launched national Early Childhood Education strategy.

To learn more about FESEN, please visit their website.