Education in Congo

So I'm starting to have some semi-informed opinions about education here in Congo.

 

I am sure that there are many people who are committed to ensuring that Congolese children have the skills they need for a successful future.  Teachers who get up every morning and do what they need to do to get themselves to their classroom and face 75 children who have traveled too many kilometers on an empty belly to be there.  And they do the best they can, even though they may not get paid for months and months.  But this is also a place where school is supposed to be free, and parents pay 75 percent of school fees that come in through the school director and climb their way up to the Ministry of Education in Kinshasa--with a little going to everyone up the chain along the way.  It's a place where the vast majority of the students experience corporal punishment by their teachers, and other kinds of violence by their peers. There are too too many students in 4th grade who cannot read a single sentence. Many schools have no benches and tables, so students sit on bricks.  Going back to my post where the students were carrying bricks to their new school site. The director had a budget for building materials, but decided to ask the families to contribute instead.  He has a budget line for labor too, but I'll bet you can guess who will be building their own school.

 

There are many glimmers of light in all of this, but mostly it feels overwhelming.

 

From the office of the provincial education director.  EPS - education primaire et secondaire. INC - initiation a la nouvelle citoyennete. (I'm still trying to find out what the new citizenship is.) "Never betray school" taking from Kabila Senior's "Never betray Congo".