 Solution

For the canonical surjection $p:X\to X/\sim$, define a subset $W$ of $X/\sim$ to be open exactly when $p^{-1}(W)$ is open in $X$. This is the quotient topology. The empty set and the whole quotient have open inverse images. Moreover inverse images commute with arbitrary unions and finite intersections, so the corresponding axioms of a topology follow directly from those on $X$.

The map $p$ need not be an open map. For example, on $X=\mathbb{R}$ identify every point of $[0,1]$ to one point and leave all other classes singletons. The set $U=(-1/2,1/2)$ is open, butis not open. The definition of the quotient topology therefore shows that $p(U)$ is not open. The obstruction is that saturating an open set by equivalence classes need not preserve openness.