Ongoing political conflict has delayed the start of the new school year, keeping students from class while preventing unions from pressing for a better status for teachers and quality education for all children.
While the school year in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should have started on 5 September, a part of the political opposition, under the leadership of the "Rassemblement des forces politiques et sociales acquises au changement", or simply the "Rassemblement", called on teachers and students to conduct a one-day strike during the first day of school in order to pressure the participants in the continuing political negotiations to accept its prior conditions for an inclusive dialogue.
Political dialogue is provided for in the country’s constitution, which requires a period of 12 months for setting the presidential elections and requires the electorate to be convened at least 3 months before the elections. This year that date was set for 19 September. However, the opposition faction that called the strike has been excluded from the dialogue and wishes to have its voice heard.
“The start of the school year on 5 September got off to a slow start, in particular because of costly school fees which prevented many parents from sending their children to school,” said Augustin Tumba Nzuji, General Secretary of the Fédération Nationale des Enseignants et Educateurs sociaux du Congo (FENECO-UNTC) affiliated with Education International (EI). “Although the strike was supported by a majority, low attendance resulted in mostly empty classrooms.”
“The call to strike encouraged teachers to remain at home, and parents do not wish to expose their children to a risk of violence by sending them to school, despite reassurances from the Minister of Education and the authorities,” said Nzuji.
In the capital, Kinshasa, only a few understaffed schools welcomed students from the immediate vicinity of their schools and in the urban boroughs.
Although school resumed, albeit timidly, on 12 September, seven days later the violence returned, leaving at least 30 dead, many of whom were children killed on the way to school according to the authorities.
The unions did not have time to react to the call to strike, said the FENECO-UNTC, which considers this an abnormal situation because education must be kept separate from politics, particularly given that it is a fragile sector.
The violence has overshadowed many serious concerns facing education in the country. With teachers underpaid with an average salary of $90 USD per month, or unpaid altogether, the promise of free primary education remaining unfulfilled, and ever-increasing unaffordable school fees, including classroom supplies all plague an increasingly insecure sector.
According to the union, while the school system is still being burdened by the political crisis, it is imperative to find a way to show that it wants all children to receive the best education possible, and that it is prevented from improving the status of the teaching profession. However, if more strikes are called, properly completing the school year will be difficult.