How to catch up: Education for marginalized Congolese provinces and overcrowded environments

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

According to the most recent statistical data on Congo’s education status, the areas of the country falling the furthest behind are the more peaceful provinces. These are the parts of the country experiencing the worst learning outcomes and in urgent need of assistance. Despite conventional wisdom, conflict-affected areas are surprisingly better served, even if they endure widespread suffering. This phenomenon occurs in the context of Congo’s sudden free education policy, which has resulted in new inequity trends. While, in principle, tuition has been abolished, research demonstrates that this is not yet the case. A step-by-step implementation plan tailored to each province would have been essential to provide critical support to schools in their efforts and might have alleviated challenges in rolling out the policy. Specifically, delays in the payment of salaries aggravated by the reduction of payments, difficulty dealing with banks, overcrowded classrooms, and the situation of their new colleagues, have caused hostility towards the policy. In sum, the free school policy increased the student population to the extent that, in some instances, the number is students in a single school frequently doubled. More students result in increased operational costs, including desks and educational materials, but also a huge need for new forms of teachers (IBTCI/Niki-Niki, 2021, p. 9).

Focusing on the effects, marginalized groups remain blocked from entering and staying in school. These factors are layered in a context wherein many schools’ catchment areas were historically situated where the church could make inroads, concession companies offered services, or NGOs had incentives to operate. As a result, certain groups have increased access to education, while others are structurally left behind. Major Congo donors are responsible for ensuring that inclusion goes beyond traditional categories, such as girls or those affected by conflict.

During a strategic review conducted among implementing partners, a donor, and with local civil society organizations, we found through five provincial assessments that solely using the education in emergencies lens to determine priority areas no longer made sense in a context of protracted national instability and neglect. While a key donor priority is stabilization, an even greater emphasis needs to be placed on social service provision if additional parts of the country are to avoid falling over the cliff. The program expansion strategy now looks beyond near-term solutions to use education as a driver of social change.

To pinpoint provincial inequalities as the analysis took hold (RESEN, 2022), one could see, for instance, the women’s literacy rate in conflict-affected provinces such as Sud-Kivu (24%) and Ituri (31%), whereas peaceful Sankuru had a rate of only 12%. One of the most telling statistics is that of primary school completion. In this case, Sankuru has a rate of only 53% and Bas-Uele at 65%, whereas conflict-affected Nord-Kivu comes in at 77%, Ituri at 84%, and Sud-Kivu at 88%. Regarding school construction, 15 provinces out of 26 have less than 50% of their schools built with sustainable or semi-sustainable materials, all located in relatively stable parts of the country. On the other hand, Sankuru has a rate of 17%.

Furthermore, because Congo sub-divided its provinces from 11 to 26, the newly created ones were cut off from the center in this exercise of découpage. Specifically, the old capital cities and their periphery landed up gaining a greater source of wealth, while newly partitioned ones suffered from this slicing and dicing because resources weren’t provided to them and they ended up falling behind.

Accordingly, a major donor is pivoting resources to schools in underserved peaceful provinces and is looking for ways to broaden beyond this new operational zone. To do so, it has been necessary to offer not only teacher support, but also parallel systems that intensify reading methods and resource persons. Panelists in the group will focus on various aspects of this student growth puzzle and its implications for other countries undergoing similar challenges.

Note: While the term “pygmy” can at times be misconstrued as pejorative, it is likewise a positive identity in contemporary usage. The other main term available in English is “indigenous”. The reason this latter term isn’t used in the paper is that it likewise historically refers to all Congolese communities as being set apart from settlers of European (or non-African) descent rather than non-Bantu peoples. In French, the term peuples autochtones is also considered acceptable, though there isn’t an English equivalent. Ultimately, referring to specific pygmy ethnicities often makes more sense since there’s a great degree of diversity among them.

Sub Unit

• Africa SIG

Chair

• Ezra Simon, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Individual Presentations

• Reimagining educational opportunities for indigenous communities in underserved Congolese provinces - Ezra Simon, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

• Piloting classroom assistants as a way to help teachers manage large classes and provide individualized support to disadvantaged learners - Consolata Nzeeb, Save the Children

• Education within reach: Engaging DRC’s migratory indigenous populations through family literacy, interactive audio programs, and social inclusion - Hortense Bulungu, Edcucation Development Center (EDC)

• Education access for the hyper marginalized: a case study of designing education interventions for indigenous populations in Eastern D.R. Congo - ALEX KABEYA, FHI 360