Press releases - 2026 February 07
Arriving this morning in Kédougou for the second phase of his tour of Eastern Senegal, the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, laid the foundation stone in Salémata for the Army–Nation High School for Quality and Equity (LYNAQE).
This groundbreaking is part of a major national program aimed at establishing centers of excellence secondary schools across the country, with the objective of correcting territorial disparities and bringing high-quality education closer to local communities. Drawing on the achievements of Senegal’s existing excellence schools and on international best practices, the LYNAQE initiative provides a concrete response to imbalances between academic streams by training a greater number of scientists capable of contributing effectively to national development efforts.
The President of the Republic recalled that the LYNAQE schools are designed to stimulate innovation, creativity, and scientific excellence, particularly in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), by offering students environments conducive to intellectual work, rigor, and high performance. The initiative thus addresses a dual imperative: strengthening the quality of learning outcomes and correcting socioeconomic disparities in access to elite education.
As a strategic pillar of public policies promoting equity and social justice in the education sector, LYNAQE also serves as a structuring tool for the development of scientific and technical human capital, aimed at strengthening national sovereignty, supporting innovation, and enhancing the country’s competitiveness. The Nation–Army concept places discipline, rigor, civic responsibility, and a sense of duty at the heart of the educational pathway.
Each LYNAQE will take the form of a boarding school campus covering approximately ten hectares, accommodating 600 students from middle school to upper secondary level, selected through a national competitive examination. The program targets gender parity, balanced territorial representation, and includes students from the Franco-Arabic stream as well as students in situations of vulnerability. The supervision model, co-designed by the Ministry of Education and the Armed Forces, combines academic excellence with a structured framework, in the service of student success and the training of responsible citizens.
Through this founding act, the Head of State reaffirms a clear political orientation: to make excellence a tool for equity, national cohesion, and strategic preparation for the Senegal of tomorrow, in line with the Senegal 2050 Vision.
