By IPS Correspondents
LOME, Jan 19 1999 (IPS)

An indefinite strike by students has served to spotlight a crisis that has been affecting Togo’s lone university for some time now.

Since last week, the 16,000 students of the Universite du Benin (University of Benin) in the Togolese capital have been on an unlimited stayaway, calling for the resignation of Togo’s education minister and improvements at the university.

Foremost among their grievances is the stipend they receive from the state. It amounts to roughly 40 U.S. dollars a month and, according to Alphonse Late Lawson-Helu, president of the University of Benin Students Council (CEUB), it has not changed in two decades.

“Our stipend has been the same for almost 21 years,” he says. “It has remained at 21,600 CFA since 1978. It’s really a pittance. The cost of living has gone up tremendously, not to forget educational documents and other services which have become more expensive.”

“We are not accepting this injustice. Things have to change,” he added.

The students made five main demands when, in the first week of January, they notified the authorities that they planned to go on strike. These include cleaning up the campus grounds, which have been turned into a garbage dump, the payment of three months’ overdue stipends, and the provision of 20 university buses.

The other demands are better meals at the university restaurant and the rehabilitation of lecture theatres and the university library.

But the main bone of contention is the stipend, especially since students in other French-speaking West African nations get more from their governments.

Students in the first two years of university receive 25,000 CFA (about 45 dollars) a month in Benin and Burkina Faso, and 34,000 CFA (around 60 US dollars) in Cote d’Ivoire. In all three countries, students in years three and four receive grants of over 30,000 CFA a month.

Togo, on the other hand, has a flat rate of 21,600 CFA.

Delphine Lare, a 23-year-old English student, suspects that the state has not been taking the students’ demands seriously. “We are surprised that the authorities have been waving aside the problems of the young students,” she says.

“Their children do not go to the same schools as we,” she adds, by way of explaining what she sees as official neglect. “They’ve done nothing to increase the stipend and, especially, to pay it regularly. We are determined to make our demands heard, whatever the price we have to pay.”

The university has about 5,000 scholarship holders while 4,000 other students who also receive assistance from the state. No new scholarships were created at the start of the 1998/1999 academic year. The Scholarship and Internships Service just redistributed 1,327 scholarships previously held by students who lost them.

Conditions at the university are also poor.

“Lecture theatres are crowded,” says 22-year-old administration student Olivia Apedoh. “The chairs are no good, the lights aren’t working, the microphones and loud speakers do not work well. How can you study in such conditions?”

Arts student Nathalie Moukpe deplores the fact that she cannot find the documents she needs for her studies at the library.

“In the era of new information technology, we have access only to old documents and outdated information,” she says. “It’s impossible to find more recent books. For the country to develop, good education is needed, but our authorities are satisfied with second-rate education and we cannot accept that.”

The authorities did make some concessions to the students when they first voiced their grievances: they paid one month’s arrears in stipends, provided five of the 20 buses and started cleaning up the campus, even though they have been unable to stop people from dumping more garbage on the grounds.

However, they given no indication that they are about to increase the stipend or do something about the poor infrastructure.

Other problems the student crisis has highlighted include a shortage of teachers – around 3,000 are needed at all levels of education here – and overcrowded conditions at the university, as in other educational institutions.

“The campus was built for 6,000 students but it now has 16,000,” says Tanko Diasso, a lecturer in the Faculty of Sciences. “The campus has come under strong demographic pressure… The authorities saw it coming but did nothing to ease the situation. The whole system will have to be reviewed.”

The Togolese government devotes 18 to 22 percent of the state budget to education which, in 1998, received around 30 billion CFA francs (54.5 million dollars).

Around 80 percent of the education budget is spent on salaries and stipends, while some 10 percent is invested in the sector and the rest goes towards miscellaneous expenses.

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