a still chaotic return to school two weeks after the reopening of classes
The start of the school year is still hypothetical two weeks after the official reopening of classes in the DRC. The striking teachers are demanding a regulation of their salaries and their status by the government. They suspended their mobilization without winning their case, but classes did not resume all.
From our Kinshasa correspondent,
The situation has not really changed. The Minister of Primary, Secondary and Technical Education (EPST), Willy Bakonga, assures us that classes actually started in the schools on Monday.
He was quickly contradicted by the Union of Teachers of Catholic Convention Schools (Synecat). In most primary and secondary schools in Kinshasa, strike went on. The students have never seen their teachers, others receive the students but without giving lessons.
Hunting for fictional teachers
Their requirements are still the same: registration and payment of new teachers, application of the salary scale agreed in 2019, and audit to detect fictitious teachers.
According to Cécile Tshiyombo, Secretary-General of the Congo Teachers’ Union (Syeco), a suspension has been ordered to allow the opening of formal negotiations. The date is still unknown. However, informal discussions took place between the two parties.
The free goal
But Minister Willy Bakonga is annoyed by the escalation. According to him, the way in which some teachers behave is not “plausible”, because “when we discuss, we have to clean up, stop the fighting, as we say. This is outrage and bad will.” “people who are inclined to go against free education. They want us to return to the old system of teacher motivation from parents”.
The behavior condemned is mainly directed at Catholic schools in the capital. Their managers complain about free training that does not take into account working conditions and that risks compromising quality.
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