The bac in French-speaking Africa: a country-by-country comparison

High school and exams

12 min read

2 Nov 2026

The bac in French-speaking Africa: a country-by-country comparison

BAC II in Togo, Baccalauréat unique in Guinea, Examen d'État in DR Congo: exam name, organising body, tracks, dates and 2026 results in 17 French-speaking African countries, from official sources, and what it changes for studying abroad.

Espero AKPOLI

Founder · Compatri, the social network for diasporas

Information checked on 2 November 2026.

The school-leaving exam in French-speaking Africa does not have the same name in every country. In Togo you sit the BAC II; in Guinea, the Baccalauréat unique; in DR Congo, the Examen d'État, which gives you the diplôme d'État. The body in charge changes too: a Baccalaureate Office (Office du bac) in Benin and Senegal, an exams department in Côte d'Ivoire and Congo, an office attached to higher education in Niger and Chad. This comparison brings together, for 17 countries, what ministries, baccalaureate offices and state news agencies publish. When no official source confirms a piece of information, the cell is left empty ("-") and we say so.

The bac in French-speaking Africa: the big table

Country	Name of the exam	Body or ministry in charge	Series named by official sources	2026 written exams
Benin	Baccalauréat	Office du Baccalauréat (Higher Education)	A1, A2, B, C, D; technical E, F1 to F4, G1 to G3	From Monday 15 June
Togo	BAC II (the BAC I is taken in Première)	Office du Baccalauréat, Lomé	A4 and D (the two most followed in 2025)	From Tuesday 16 June
Senegal	General baccalauréat and technical bac	Office du Baccalauréat, UCAD (Higher Education)	L, L2, LA, L-AR, S1 to S5, S1A, S2A	General bac from Tuesday 30 June
Côte d'Ivoire	Baccalauréat	Direction des examens et concours (National Education)	A1, A2, C, D; B in technical	From 15 to 19 June
Burkina Faso	Baccalauréat (first and second round)	Ministry of Secondary Education	A, C, D and technological series	From Tuesday 23 June
Mali	Malian baccalauréat	Ministry of National Education	TSS, TLL, TSECO (names not detailed)	From Monday 22 June
Niger	General, technical and professional baccalauréat	OBEECS (Higher Education)	A4 (other series not confirmed)	From Tuesday 14 July
Guinea	Baccalauréat unique	Ministry of National Education	Mathematical sciences, experimental sciences, social sciences; Franco-Arabic track	From Monday 29 June
Mauritania	Baccalauréat (regular and supplementary session)	Ministry of Education and Reform of the Education System	Natural sciences, mathematics, modern literature, original literature, technical mathematics, languages	From Monday 29 June
Cameroon	Baccalauréat (French-speaking); GCE A Level (English-speaking)	OBC; Cameroon GCE Board	A1 to A5, ABI, AC, C, D, E, TI	General bac from 25 to 30 May
Gabon	General baccalauréat	Ministry of National Education	A1, A2, B, C, D	From Tuesday 14 July
Congo	General baccalauréat	Direction des examens et concours (Primary and Secondary Education)	A, C, D	From Tuesday 2 June
Chad	Baccalauréat	ONECS (Higher Education)	List codes for 2025: A4, AA, C, D, DA, E, G1 to G3	-
Central African Republic	Baccalauréat	Ministry of National Education	-	June session, dates not published
DR Congo	Examen d'État, diplôme d'État	Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship	Sections and options (math-physics, chemistry-biology, Latin-philosophy…)	From 22 to 25 June
Madagascar	Baccalauréat (bakalorea)	Ministry of Higher Education (MESUPRES)	L, S, OSE (reform); A, C, D still on the syllabus	From 20 to 24 July
Comoros	Baccalauréat	Office national des examens et concours (Onec)	A1, A2, A4, C, D, G	Planned from 1 to 14 July

Three remarks to help you read this table. First, the series listed are those that an official source names: a short list does not mean the country has only those series. Second, when the ministry publishes nothing online, we used the country's state news agency (AIP in Côte d'Ivoire, ANP in Niger, AGP in Gabon, ACI in Congo, AMAP in Mali, AMI in Mauritania, ACP in DR Congo) or a public daily newspaper (Sidwaya in Burkina, Le Sahel in Niger, Al-Watwan in the Comoros). Finally, the trend is the same everywhere: the written exams fall between late May and mid-July, and most procedures for studying abroad are decided well before that.

The 2026 results officially published

Country	Candidates	Official 2026 pass rate
Togo (BAC II)	75,844 registered	81.29% (72.63% in 2025)
Gabon	27,909 present	85.59% after the second round (41.5% admitted outright in the first)
Congo	99,821 present out of 101,918 registered	49.77% (46.97% in 2025)
Niger	85,441 present out of 89,143 registered	40.61% (33.58% in 2025)
Côte d'Ivoire	301,364 present	40.60% (40.15% in 2025)
Benin	77,101 candidates	-
Burkina Faso	105,984 candidates	-
Guinea	94,392 candidates	-
Mauritania	64,532 candidates	-
DR Congo	1,082,742 candidates in the long cycle	National rate not published

Do not compare these rates like a ranking. Gabon counts its admitted students after two rounds; in Togo, 17,329 "admissible" candidates went through the oral exam before being admitted; in Niger, the rate for the general bac alone (37.65%) is lower than that of the technical and professional bacs. For the countries marked "-", the figure that circulates comes only from the private press: we did not use it.

Series C, D and A: where to find their equivalent

The letters C (mathematics and physics), D (life sciences) and A (literature) are shared by many countries, but official sources rarely describe their content. Here is only what they say.

Country	Mathematics and physics side	Life sciences side	Literature side
Benin	C: mathematics coefficient 6, physical sciences 5	D: SVT (life and earth sciences) coefficient 5, mathematics and physics 4	A1: French 5; A2: history-geography 5
Cameroon	C: mathematics coefficient 7 in Terminale	D: SVTEEHB coefficient 6	A1 to A5 depending on the languages
Côte d'Ivoire	C: "focused on mathematics and physical sciences"	-	-
Guinea	Mathematical sciences: mathematics, physics	Experimental sciences: bio-geology, chemistry	Social sciences: history, economics, geography
Mauritania	Mathematics series	Natural sciences series	Modern literature, original literature
Madagascar	Series S, which merges C and D	Series S	Series L, which merges A1 and A2
DR Congo	Math-physics option	Chemistry-biology option	Latin-philosophy option

For Guinea, these are the subjects read in the official 2023 timetable, not a definition of the options. For Mali, Niger, Chad and the Comoros, we found no official source describing the series: ask your school for the syllabuses. To choose between the two science series, our article bac C or bac D, which series to choose compares the career paths.

Country by country: what to remember

West Africa

Benin: 14 series, 77,101 candidates in 140 centres in 2026. Coefficients and registration are in our article on the bac in Benin.
Togo: two exams, the BAC I in Première (written exams from 18 to 22 May 2026, 73.05% pass rate) then the BAC II in Terminale. The BAC II make-up session was planned from 3 to 7 August 2026.
Senegal: the Office has published the general bac papers and corrections since 2020, a rare resource. Everything is in our article on the bac in Senegal.
Côte d'Ivoire: 329,372 registered in 2026, of whom 303,625 for the general bac. In Séguéla, series C made a comeback in 2026 after 24 years of suspension. Details in our article on the bac in Côte d'Ivoire.
Burkina Faso: 105,984 candidates in 2026, physical exams from 21 May and written exams from 23 June.
Mali: the written exams of the Malian baccalauréat started on Monday 22 June 2026. Neither the national total of candidates nor the pass rate has been published by an official source we could read.
Niger: the OBEECS, the higher education office, runs a three-part bac. The written exams start late, in mid-July, and the 2026 results came out on 14 August.
Guinea: a single exam, the Baccalauréat unique, with 94,392 candidates in 2026, of whom 32,248 were independent candidates.
Mauritania: 64,532 candidates in 2026, of whom 58.13% were girls. The natural sciences series alone has 37,419 candidates; the mathematics series, 2,110.

Central Africa

Cameroon: two subsystems, the probatoire then the bac on the French-speaking side, the GCE O Level then A Level on the English-speaking side. Everything is in our article on the bac and GCE in Cameroon.
Gabon: 28,394 registered for the general bac. The technical and professional bacs start before the general bac, on Saturday 11 July in 2026.
Congo: the Direction des examens et concours closes applications in January (31 January 2026 for the June session). Series D dominates: 58.43% of candidates in 2026, against 3.12% in C.
Chad: the ONECS, created by a 2006 law, prepares the bac "in collaboration with the universities, the academies and the ministry in charge of National Education". It has published no information about the 2026 session on its website.
Central African Republic: the Prime Minister's Office confirms a session in June 2026 and a top average of 15.30/20. The rest is not published online.
DR Congo: more than a million candidates, a pass threshold of 50% and exams spread from February to June. Everything is in our article on the Examen d'État in DRC.

Indian Ocean

Madagascar: registration from 12 January to 27 March 2026, general bac written exams from 20 to 24 July. Results can be checked online, province by province.
Comoros: a decree set the general bac from 1 to 14 July 2026 and the technical bac in August. Only the Onec opens and closes the exam sub-centres.

Burundi and Rwanda: no bac

In Burundi, the end of secondary school is marked by a state exam (examen d'État). In Rwanda, the national end-of-secondary exam is the Advanced Level, run by the NESA, with subject combinations (physics, chemistry, mathematics; physics, chemistry, biology…). The 2026 written exams took place from 15 to 21 July. These two systems cannot be read with the bac grid.

The 2027 session: what is already set

Country	What is published as of 2 November 2026
Togo	Exams for the 2026-2027 year from 24 May to 25 June 2027; BAC I from 24 to 28 May. BAC II date not yet published
Cameroon	Official secondary exams between 19 April and 30 July 2027, precise dates to come
DR Congo	Ordinary session of the Examen d'État from 21 to 24 June 2027
Other countries	2027 calendar not published

Do not mistake a missing date for a grace period: in all these countries, registration often opens as early as November or December. Start revising now with our method for revising for the bac with past papers.

What this changes for studying abroad

In France: Campus France, during your Terminale

All the countries in this comparison follow the Études en France procedure, except Niger, which is not on the list of 75 countries and territories published by Campus France. France asks for no equivalence for a first-year bachelor's (licence 1): the university reads your report cards and your bac. In most countries, the application is made before the results, usually before 15 December for a licence 1. A big exception: in DR Congo, the diplôme d'État is required to submit an application, and a sixth-year student must wait for the next campaign. Each Espace has its own calendar: Benin, Togo, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, DR Congo, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania. The Campus France simulator (in French), free and anonymous, places your average against admitted students; its thresholds are measured on Beninese candidates, so they give only a rough idea for other countries.

In Belgium: an equivalence, and special cases

In French-speaking Belgium, an equivalence is required to enter a bachelor's. The Service des équivalences handles some countries separately: Senegal, Guinea and Rwanda (proof of access to higher education required), Cameroon (original documents), DR Congo (a diplôme d'État obtained between 1998 and 2014 may not be recognised as equivalent). Our article on the equivalence of the African bac abroad details documents, fees and deadlines, destination country by destination country.

For scholarships: your grade counts

Some scholarships set a threshold on your bac. The Ashinaga Foundation, for example, asks for its master's in France more than 14/20 at the bac or more than 75% at the Examen d'État (in French). The directory of scholarships (in French) has one page per nationality, such as scholarships for Ivorians (in French) or scholarships for Gabonese (in French), and alerts before each deadline. Keep your transcript, your report cards and, if the diploma is late, a certificate of success from now on: every application asks for them.

Revise with your class, wherever you are

The bac changes its name, not the revision. On Compatri, join your class group: one group per class and per city ("Terminale D, Brazzaville", "Terminale C, Abidjan"), where you can ask questions and mark the best answer. The exam archive (in French) gathers the papers submitted by students, published at the earliest the day after the exam; it is still being built, and every paper you submit (in French) helps a student in another country. And to prepare for what comes next, a volunteer diaspora mentor who has taken the same path can advise you.

Compatri is neither a baccalaureate office nor a ministry: only their texts and press releases are authoritative.

Official sources

Baccalaureate Exams and competitive entry High school Study choices Africa

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What is the bac called in French-speaking African countries?

Most countries simply say "baccalauréat". There are exceptions: BAC II in Togo (after the BAC I taken in the penultimate year), Baccalauréat unique in Guinea, Examen d'État in DR Congo, which awards the diplôme d'État, and the GCE Advanced Level in Cameroon's English-speaking subsystem.

Which African country had the highest bac pass rate in 2026?

Among officially published rates, Gabon reports 85.59% after the second round and Togo 81.29% for the BAC II, ahead of Congo (49.77%), Niger (40.61%) and Côte d'Ivoire (40.60%). These figures are not a ranking: admission rules, second rounds and oral exams differ from one country to another.

What is the equivalent of the bac C or D in other countries?

The letters C and D exist in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo and the Comoros. Elsewhere the names change: mathematical sciences and experimental sciences in Guinea, the mathematics and natural sciences tracks in Mauritania, track S in Madagascar (which merges C and D), and the maths-physics and chemistry-biology options in DR Congo.

When is the 2027 bac in French-speaking Africa?

As of 2 November 2026, few countries have published their dates. Togo has set its exams from 24 May to 25 June 2027, Cameroon between 19 April and 30 July 2027, and DR Congo holds the regular session of the Examen d'État from 21 to 24 June 2027. Everywhere else, the 2026 written exams took place between late May and mid-July.

Is my African bac recognised in France?

France asks for no equivalence for a first-year bachelor's: the university assesses your file itself. In most countries, the Campus France application is made during the final year, before the results. In DR Congo, however, the diplôme d'État is required to submit a file. Niger is not part of the Études en France procedure.