CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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Congo RDC |
EDUCATION
In May 2002, a first study grant was made by the World Bank to Congolese students. Now, when it comes to graduating for the 2003 academic year, both young and old in Katanga are keenly interested. Why?
Because for more than ten years the State hasn’t been giving out any study bursaries
This July’s academic graduation will be somewhat exceptional for the province of Katanga, in Congo RDC‘s south-east. The number of candidates enroled in the high school diploma programme is the highest since this school-leaving exercise was instituted in 1967. On 27 April, students had to present their written theses, and the Regional Education Officer for primary, secondary and professional education (EPSP), Willy Benjamin Kasonde, took the opportunity to note that: «The number of candidates for the academic year 2003 has increased by 60% compared to 1995, which until now held the record vis à vis the number of Katanganese students taking this particular state examination. This year, for the first time we registered self-educated candidates whose age varies between 50 and 58 years. Most of these mature candidates are former workers with Gécamines who want to reorientate their lives after having been forced to take early retirement».
Most of those who are returning to education, in the hope that one day they’ll be able to go to university thanks to the World Bank grants, come from poor and marginalized backgrounds. Let’s take the case of Gaston Sepwe de Musoshi who is a miner. He says: «I took my state examination in 1970 and failed. Today, I’m 52 years old. The Mining and Industrial Development Company of Congo (SODIMICO) hasn’t paid us for 39 months, so I decided to have a shot at the High School Diploma this year, sitting as a self-educated candidate. Education was good when I used to be at school. With this background I got a 80% pass-mark. Now I hope to enter the Faculty of Law».
Alice Koj’s got the same determination: «I left school before taking my leaving certificate in 1998 when my father was killed in Kalemie during the war years. What was the point of having this diploma when there was nobody to pay for my studies in the university? Now I’m studying hard so as to take the forthcoming high school diploma. If I do well, a World Bank grant will allow me to get into Lubumbashi University».
Study grants
David Katompwa Nyembo is political and financial adviser to Congo’s Minister of National Education. In May 2002 he came to Katanga to award study grants to those who had done well in their final examinations. Speaking to a gathering of academics, he encouraged them by stating: «You see, those who’ve done well in their final examinations are getting a study grant. This is a “first”. But in future, this could be extended to professors at universities and institutes of higher learning, so these can proceed even further in their chosen field. The World Bank wants to encourage deserving professors who work under difficult conditions».
This particular study grant was awarded to those who graduated in the school year 2000-2001 with 65% and more — 1,026 successful candidates for the entire Congo RDC, including the territories occupied by the rebels. Katanga had just 130 recipients. Students who received between 65% and 70% were registered either in university or in an institute of higher education, with a study bursary of 380 dollars for one academic year. Those who were successful with a passmark of 80% or more, received a study bursary for their entire tertiary education course.
Nicolas Nyange Kayembe is the EPSP‘s principal inspector in Katanga. He sheds a little more light on the World Bank’s education programme and how it’s going. He says: «The July 2001 High School Diploma results were the worst since 1967. The nation’s new government stamped out every opportunity for dishonesty in Kinshasa’s National Centre for Correcting State Examinations. Indeed, to such an extent that there were only 30% successful candidates for the whole of Congo. That’s why we’re delighted with the World Bank’s initiative which stimulates candidates to make every effort do well in the Diploma examinations. This year in Katanga, we’ve got 20,000 candidates in 77 state examination centres, so we’re almost sure to get some good results».
The students’ situation
Just like their fellow students in Kinshasa who can’t get study grants, students at Lubumbashi University haven’t enough to eat. They’ve heavy expenses (part of which is taken to top-up their underpaid professors’ monthly salaries), to cover lodging, transport, purchase of the syllabuses, undertaking research in the cybercafs, preparing their theses etc.
Most of Lubumbashi’s 15,000 university students come from families who have to make do with less than 1 dollar per day. How do they survive? There are some who live honestly by taking part-time jobs as watchmen in front of Lebanese stores, in order to pay their way through university. Others, such as Mohammed Ramazani Nyembo, have found rather dubious means for financing their studies. He explains: «Although I’m a baptised Catholic, I’ve joined the American Mormon Church which tolerates polygamy. Thanks to the Mormons, I’ve now got a monthly bursary which enables me to study under very good conditions, even if within myself I don’t agree with their false teachings».
There are many consequences of not being able to get study grants — especially prostitution, a lowering of academic standards, an increased number of examination failures, etc. But, as Daniel Kasongo, a student at Lubumbashi University’s Faculty of Economic Studies explains, the government could award these grants. «Congo RDC is the world’s leading producer of cobalt, coltan, industrial diamonds, etc, even in times of war. Let’s look at what other countries manage to do. Malawi’s only got tobacco to export and Mauritius only has sugar and tourism, however both these countries award bursaries to their students to enable them to prepare well for the future. Even Angola which has had 27 years of civil war, never cut grants because of its war situation».