Which children are not going to school and how can we get and keep them in school? Experience from the DRC.

• In Event: Broken Promises - Youth and the Benefits of Schooling

Proposal

Access to education remains a challenge in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A 2014 national DHS study in the DRC estimated that 20% of children aged 6-11 were out-of-school children (OOSC) with regional differences (DHS, 2013-2014). According to UNICEF (2018), in 2018 around 7.6 million children from ages 5-17 were not in school in the DRC. For primary-aged children (6-11), 3.5 million children were not in school before COVID-19 (USAID, 2019). While many current early education interventions in the DRC focus on improving the literacy and socio-emotional skills of marginalized and vulnerable children, efforts should also be made to improve their access to education, both in formal schools and informal learning programs.

The paper, “Which children are not going to school and how can we get and keep them in school? Experience from the DRC”, presents the research conducted as part of an ongoing 5-year project implemented in the DRC. The project aims to (i) improve access to education for marginalized children (in particular, indigenous Batwa children, girls, and children with disabilities) and (ii) improve learners' literacy and socio-emotional skills.

To be able to provide educational access to marginalized children, it is essential to identify which children are not going to school, why they are not going to school, and how we can get and keep them in school. Thus, the project conducted at its start a qualitative rapid education and risk analysis (RERA), a diagnostic of out-of-school children, and a community survey. These studies aimed to identify risk and resilience factors, establish the rate and profile of out-of-school children in the intervention communities and understand the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of caregivers and community leaders towards children enrollment, literacy, and socio-emotional learning (SEL). The three surveys used a participatory approach to give voice to members of the communities and learn from them what is currently being done at the community level to enroll children and keep them in school. The analysis sought to extract and promote initiatives already being implemented in the field by local leaders and community members, identify gaps and recommendations on how the project can better support these actions, and finally, incorporate its finding into the project’s adapted strategy.

The presentation will discuss the results of the three surveys and how they are being utilized by the project to ensure that marginalized children in DRC have access to education and stay in school.

Risk and Resilience Factors

We will present the risk associated with the schooling of Batwa children in the same school as other ethnic groups, the factors influencing school drop-out in vulnerable children, the role that community groups such as Parents and Teachers Associations (PTA) and School Management Committee (SMC) are playing in mitigating those risks and how the project can better support those initiatives.

Profiles of Out-of-school Children (OOSC)

Elements that will be discussed regarding the profiles of OOSC:

- Rate of OOSC by age, sex, ethnicity, and disability status.

- Reasons why children are not going to school.

- Flux of children enrollment in school.

- Determinants of out-of-school children.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Caregivers and Community Leaders

We will discuss what messages regarding children’s education caregivers and leaders are being exposed to, what they know about the current situation in their community, and what support they provide to children both in school and out of school.

Study Contributions

We will present how the RERA results have contributed to the implementation of the strategy aimed at building local resilience, mitigating conflict, fostering cohesion and social inclusion within communities, and explain how it is working so far, as well as the challenges we face.

We will also present how the results from the KAP survey and OOSC diagnostic studies are being used to design a communication strategy for improving access to education and to adapt the project’s strategy of reaching marginalized children.

Finally, the presentation will explore how these strategies are being used to catalyze and foster initiatives implemented in the community to improve children's access to and retention in school.

Authors

• Pierre Philippe Wilson REGISTE, Education Development Center

• Serge funga, Education Development Center