Congo News

Tom Cairns translated this piece of news he received from the Congo on Friday. It speaks specifically of Gemena, where we will be for the vision trip. Could God desire to use us in some way to help with the education of Congolese children, especially young girls? Be praying.

GEMENA: More the 900 grade school finalists fail the national exam, due to lack of school funds

Information provided by the chief of the sub-division of primary, secondary and professional schools, EPSP/Gemena. The scholastic loss strikes especially at the girls, according to the same source to radiookpai.net.

Mme. Yvonne Biye adds that there were about 4700 registered candidates. This number is far inferior to that of previous years. For her this scholastic loss is due to the parents lack of financial means. In this environment, she adds, the majority of the parents are peasants. They live essentially from agriculture. Yet the terrible disrepair of the roads doesn’t let them get their agricultural produce out to the markets in the large centers. There is also the fact that the salaries of the government employees arrived late relative to the date of the test. These two factors, explained Mme. Biye, are the basis of the high scholastic failure rate.

The chief of the EPSP sub-division also took note of the very low rate of participation of girls at the test: “The majority of these girls were pregnant before the test, and were thus not able to take the test.” According to her, these students will have to wait until next year to take the test. However, Mme. Biye was glad for the participation of 159 other students, the former child-soldiers who were in the care of Conader and those of four remedial centers initiated by UNICEF.