CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Tshibambe Lubowa, Congo (RDC), Déc. 1998
THEME = UNIVERSITY
Kinshasa University used to be the jewel
in the crown of African universities,
known for its magnificent facilities and the quality of its
teaching.
Now it is now slowly declining, but refuses to die
Kinshasa University goes back to 1945 with the foundation of Lovanium University College. In 1950, this was transferred to Kinshasa and in February 1956 became Lovanium University. Its first Rector was Mgr. Gillon (who has died recently). In 1967, he was succeeded by Mgr. Tshibangu Tshishiku. By then it had a world-wide reputation and was re-named Kinshasa University. The university campus was well organised and well-built. It consisted of lecture halls, laboratories, libraries, halls of residence for both lecturers and students, sports fields, etc. One of Mgr. Gillon's final acts as Rector was to establish a nuclear centre, presently directed by Professor Malu wa Kalenga.
Today, the university is dying. From one end of the university to another roads are cut and buildings cracked and damaged.
In March 1998, cracks caused a wall in the Regional Centre for Nuclear Studies (CREN/K) to collapse. The whole building could one day fall to pieces because the torrential rain has undermined the foundations. The TRIGA Mark II nuclear reactor is especially at risk. Some shoring up work has been done around the Centre but will not be enough to permanently combat the erosion, as the Centre is situated on a completely threatened site.
The lecture halls are overcrowded. The university presently has more than 20,000 students (1998 figures), whereas it was built for 6,000. The lack of available space has forced the university authorities to turn the former students (male) dining hall into a lecture hall. In spite of that, students from the various year groups come to blows over occupancy problems.
There are supposed to be two to four men students to each room. But that's more fiction than fact. Sometimes there are eight or even twelve students in each room. Under these conditions, novel solutions have to be found to sleeping problems if some students are not to spend the whole night in the corridor. A first group sleeps on the beds or on mattresses placed on the floor until 2.a.m. Then a second group takes over until morning. Those students who've had their turn on a bed, spend the rest of the night in the lecture halls, either preparing their lectures or trying to get some more sleep.
The men have to cook in their rooms. Most of the doors have been removed, windows are broken, toilets hardly exist. In short, decline, pure and simple.
The 1998-1999 academic year is supposed to have started on 7 November 1998 in the universities and in government-run Institutes of Higher Learning. But the students are still waiting for something to happen. And the reasons? Since 2 August, a civil war has been raging in Congo RDC; and the administrative and technical staff of tertiary education establishments are still on strike.
The personnel in question are striking because they say they have been left on the sidelines when it came to sharing out the equivalent of some 2 million US dollars, allocated by the head of state to the teaching staff in the universities and Institutes of Higher Education. Many lecturers have died this year as a consequence (so people say) of what can only be described as a famine situation raging throughout the country's universities. The highest paid professors receive a monthly wage of about US $40, which is paid somewhat haphazardly. Other grades of teaching staff were due to receive some kind of remuneration from the presidential "nest-egg".
Taking all in all, the teaching at the university is in poor shape. But...in spite of everything, the University of Kinshasa refuses to die. It has been able to function more or less normally and the students are determined to get on with their studies. We can but hope that things will improve at the university so it can continue with its task of forming the nation's elite.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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