THE DR CONGO AND ITS SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES FROM 1990-2016
3.3 THE DR CONGO AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL
3.3.2 Educational system
The DR Congo inherited the Belgium educational system. Martin Ekwa notes that the Western-style educational system in the DR Congo made its appearance in 1878 with the arrival of Protestant missionaries in Palabala in the Central Kongo. In 1880, the Catholics created two schools, one in Boma and another in the Tangagnika (Mabiala, 2006:124). A 1961 conference, headed by UNESCO in Addis Ababa, gave impetus to the issue of education in the DR Congo. The Catholic Education Office created in the same year the ISP (Institut Supérieur Pédagogique), with pedagogical colleges in Kinshasa and Boma.
The institute of Boma was in 1963 transferred to Mbanza Ngungu and coupled with the Protestant School of Kimpese. Kikwit and Lubumbashi were created in 1966 and Mbuji Mayi and Bunia in 1968 (Mabiala, 2006:125). But in 1980 the educational system began to decline as a result of what is sometimes called Zaireanization. In some estimations, the primary school admission rate was 34% in 1978-79, 22.5% in 1995 and 17% in 2001.
The decline from 1995 to 2001 is probably caused by the socio-political situation in the country, including warfare and the shrinking of the GDP as stipulated above.
As regards the state budget allocated to education, Ekwa writes:
But overall, the share allocated to education in the state budget is regressing considerably after the country's independence: 30 per cent in 1960; 19 per cent in 1970; 16.8 per cent in 1983; 0.5 per cent in 1994 and 0.8 per cent in 1996. Education spending is barely 1 per cent of GDP, while the average for developing countries is 5 per cent (Mabiala, 2006:127).
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The report of the Central Bank puts the percentage of the budget allocated to education on 0.3 in 2005 and 2006, 2.1 in 2007, 1.8 in 2008, 0.1 in 2009, 0.6 in 2010, 0.3 in 2011, 0.9 in 2012, 0.3 in 2013 and 0.6 in 2014.
In sum, the educational budget decreased from 30% in 1960 to 0.6 in 2014. If there is no improvement the education budget may end up being removed from the government budget altogether. It is clear that the government’s priorities no longer include education.
Early during independence, it was a strong priority to raise the education level of the people. However, the sweeter power became, the more government’s priorities change.
Discussing the persistence of poverty in Africa and Asia, Baulch considers lack of education as a crucial factor that prevents a solution of chronic poverty (Baulch, 2011:13).
The following table reflects the government’s priorities according to its budget allocations.
Table 5: Priorities in the budget
Priority 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
1 Political institutions 7,7 6,6 7,2 7,1 5,9 13,7 12,2 14,0 10,2 8,3
2 Army 6,9 4,6 8,2 8,3 3,0 6,8 4,4 5,8 4,4 3,0
3 Health 0,2 0,8 1,1 0,8 0,5 0,2 0,3 0,5 0,6 0,6
4 Education 0.3 0.3 2,1 1,8 0,1 0,6 0,3 0,9 0,3 0,6
Little effort has been made to build new infrastructure since the 1980s and even before that. In education only, the private sector is experiencing growth, especially in the city.
Generally, efforts to affect progress in any sector are thwarted by the arising of infrastructure problems.
The extremely modest financial allocations to education lead to teachers being paid salaries that are so poor as to be humiliating. The average salary of a primary and secondary or high school teacher is around 70 US $ per month while the average costs of living of a small family are around 500 US $. In addition, many teachers in the country have for many years not been paid. They are called new units (nouvelles unités). They have been recruited by the government to teach and correctly enlisted, but not paid, sometimes for decades, while continuing to work for the government. The result of
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demotivated teachers is only to be expected. A consequence is that many teachers consider teaching as a secondary occupation in their lives. Their first concern is to provide for their daily needs and teaching takes second place. Corruption in the primary, secondary and university education sectors is high. In my view, corruption is a system, intended to solve some problems that have been created by an oppressive system. In many cases, instead of teaching, teachers begin lessons by collecting money. The practice is that what the government doesn’t pay out is contributed by scholars and students. Whether this amounts to paying or to corrupting the teacher, quality education is lost. Pupils who finish high school are often unable to write a single correct sentence.
The curriculum of the educational system has not been significantly improved for decades. The higher education sector appears to have been reformed but does not adapt to current needs. In his reflection on the pedagogy of the oppressed, Freire accentuates the importance of education as a liberative force. Nothing can replace education in the transformation of society. This implies that one of the entities destroying the DR Congo is its educational system. Freire (2005:29) argues as follows.
In fact, those who, in learning to read and write, come to a new awareness of selfhood and begin to look critically at the social situation in which they find themselves, often take the initiative in acting to transform the society that has denied them this opportunity of participation. Education is once again a subversive force.
In children’s lives, school and family are the environments where they blossom. One of the most important requirements of society is good education. The way we consider the educational issue today shows the way we want to see our society tomorrow. Education (including schooling) is one of the first rights accorded to children in the 18th and 19th century (Kosher et al., 2014:11).
As mentioned before, the educational system in the DR Congo suffers from the inability of parents to pay school fees and supplement the salaries of teachers. This practice took root in the 1990s when the government was unable to pay teachers. The system of school fees in combination with the general state of the country’s economy does not allow everyone to enjoy equal education. The cost is from 10 to 40 US $ per pupil per month, depending on whether the school is in an urban or rural environment. In his work, Kosher (2014:11) insists on attaching great importance to high value education, arguing that,
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‘states’ must recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and based on equal opportunity”. Article 28 of the DR Congo Constitution states that all children have the right to free education in public schools (Assemblée, 2006:15). Associating poverty with schooling, Bequele estimates that less than half the children in Africa finish primary school (Thukral, 2011:44).
This situation is associated with the ramshackle state of school infrastructures. Building schools is also no priority of the government. There are not enough schools built to accommodate the demographic increase.