St. Francis College of Education was the first Catholic Institution established in the Lower Volta Vicariate in 1908 by the German VSD Missionaries on a parcel of land donated by Bla, Kpeme, and Abansi. It was then called St. Augustine College.
In 1911 it was closed down and moved to Agbedrafor in Togo. It was brought back to Gbi- Bla in 1912 and closed down again because of the First World War (1914-1918). In 1929, the College was opened again (now under the SMA missionaries) at Gbi-Bla as a Rural Training Center which was transformed into a Training College in January, 1931 and officially opened by Bishop Augustine Herman, SMA with 18 students.
