Between 1996 and the peace treaty in 2003, several Congolese and foreign rebels and government troops fought for power. The fight was especially focussed around acquisition of the wealth of natural resources in the East of the country. Millions of people fled or died as a result of the war. After the elections in 2006, Joseph Kabila became the first chosen Head of Government since more than forty years. Nevertheless, in 2008 the armed violence is still going on. In the last quarter of 2009 alone, 250,000 people were on the run for the increasing violence in the province of North-Kivu.
The economy of the country is very unstable. The wealth is being sold - often illegally - to foreign companies and governments. Corruption takes place on a large scale. There is almost no infrastructure and the unemployment is enormous. The building up of the democratic institutions is a priority. There is a dire absence of social services such as basis health care and education. A number of 4.7 million children, almost half of all children at primary school age, does not go to school. And even though the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) subscribes to the different agreements for the promotion of education, the education sector hardly receives an allocation of 8.22% of the national budget. This amount does not allow to pay the teachers a decent salary, nor to build new educational structures, certainly not these who are apt for the education of vulnerable groups, nor to reorganize and maintain the existing structures, and nor to make didactically and pedagogical material available to teachers and students,… let alone to train a sufficient number of teachers and give them further in-service training.
2008 is our first concrete functioning year in DRC as a programme. The programme for DRC is aligned with the priority action plan and the project of the `Année Pédagogique’, proclaimed by the minister for the second consecutive year. The aim of the programme is to contribute to a better quality of the primary and the technical agricultural education. For this end we commit ourselves to four topics: optimising the inspection sheets and procedures; the resurgence of the pedagogical entities in the schools as instruments of training and accompagniment of teachers; the rewriting of the curricula of the technical agricultural education and the investment in training, equipment and ICT for the central and decentralized inspection services.
Off to a good start
We work with and by means of the national and provincial structures of the Congolese school inspection, which, in principle, reaches each individual school in this giant country, on the one hand, and with the service for developing learning programmes and didactic material, on the other. By doing so, we integrate our functioning in the existing local structures and we ensure the most possible efficient use of the financial resources.
For the follow up in the (agricultural) schools, we rework, print, disseminate and introduce the inspection sheets. We released also four pedagogical brochures. At national level there are trainings for a team of trainers. The management of a school, entrepreneurship and the use of the inspection sheets, among others, are taken up as subjects for training. Then the trainers on their turn deliver the same trainings at provincial level (cascade system). We also try to provide laptops and printers at provincial level. Also, an internet site will be launched where the inspection sheets, pedagogical brochures and training modules can easily be downloaded (see: www.ige-rdc.cd). A relatively smooth communication with at least half of the educational provinces has consequently become a fact. This is an enormous step is forward.
Concerning the technical agricultural education we reflected about the different existing graduation options. Two reports were written with regards to the state of affairs of the learning programmes and the strategy for rewriting them. Moreover an analysis was made of the examination results and the numbers of students in the respective graduations options.
We distribute a didactic working tool and a methodological guide with the aim of clarifying the use of a reference work in the field of agriculture. Likewise, the actualized learning programme `general agriculture’ is further distributed. A ministerial instruction makes this programme obligatory in all technical agricultural schools as from the school year 2008-2009.
Ownership and harmonization
The developed pedagogical material is considered as 'being of the inspection self'. Our Congolese partners are really proud of it. VVOB helps to monitor the quality of the produced material, something the partner sometimes overlooks in their desire to produce material in abundance. It is obvious that the partners are clearly in the driver’s seat what concerns the designing of the pedagogical material.
In order to render the development aid more effective, VVOB cooperate actively in the harmonization of the efforts of the different donors in the field of education. This coordination takes place in several platforms: both international and Belgian consultation bodies and ad hoc working teams, among which these concerning school inspection. We want to continuously keep ourselves informed about “who does what” and to create collaborations to make our voice heard in terms of supporting the quality of education in DR Congo.
The big challenges
The partnership in RDC has not yet achieved the meaning that it could ideally have. Values such as transparency, flexibility and trust are sometimes missing. This is partly due to the financial situation of the Congolese state, partly to the mentality of the top of the civil servants and partly on the inheritance from the past. The challenge for VVOB exists in finding a balance between the striving towards an optimum partnership and the achievement of concrete results.
Another big challenge is and remains the estimation of the magnitude of our influence on the cascade system (see above), a system known for its multiple problems. Creative use of alternative systems to examine the impact of our efforts, such as working with pilot schools, must certainly deserve our attention. There is also a necessity to monitor the distribution of didactical and pedagogical material financed by VVOB, so as to ensure that each school receives the material it is entitled to.
Capacity development must be embedded within a broader perspective of institutional strengthening. We could choose for an analysis or organizational audit to identify the capacity gaps of the institutions and to remedy them. A last challenge is and remains the sustainability of the ICT means that are being invested within a difficult context such as Congo.
