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Zaire Policy Changes
The state's initial goal was to rectify the severe
imbalance
between primary schooling, where the colonial state had
excelled,
and secondary and university schooling, where it had done
almost
nothing. At independence the nation had one of the highest
literacy
rates on the continent and fully 70 percent of the primary
schoolage population enrolled in school. (However, over 70
percent of
these schools offered only two grades, and dropout rates
were among
the highest in colonial Africa.) At the secondary level,
however,
the enrollment total of 28,951 students was a mere 2
percent of the
primary school enrollment. The colonial bias toward
creation of a
minimally educated populace was clear.
The new government responded by rapidly expanding
education at
all levels, with special emphasis on increasing the number
of
postprimary institutions. Whereas the state established
some
primary and secondary schools under its own direction, it
generally
preferred to continue the existing pattern of subsidizing
Catholic
missions to carry out state educational goals. (Protestant
and
Kimbanguist schools were also subsidized; the former had
received
few funds under the colonial state, and the latter had
received
none.) The general pattern was for the state to set
curriculum, to
pay staff salaries, and to provide some educational
materials.
Recruitment of teachers and staff and management of the
schools
themselves were left to the churches.
Primary schools taught grades one through six, and
secondary
schools were responsible for grades seven though twelve.
Secondary
schools were subdivided into the cycle
d'orientation (junior
high) and cycle long (senior high). Diplomas were
awarded
not for simply finishing classes with passing grades, but
for
passing a rigorous nationwide examination administered by
the
state, the examen d'état.
By the mid-1980s, higher education had expanded into
over
twenty postsecondary institutions providing
university-level
education. The four campuses of the National University of
Zaire
(Université Nationale du Zaïre--UNAZA) led the six that
grant
university degrees. UNAZA consists of the University of
Kinshasa
(Université de Kinshasa; originally Lovanium University,
the
Catholic university, founded in 1954), the University of
Kisangani
(Université de Kisangani; originally the Free University
of the
Congo, or Université Libre du Congo--ULC, the Protestant
university, founded in 1963), the University of Lubumbashi
(Université de Lubumbashi, formerly the state-run
Université
Officielle du Congo--UOC, founded in 1964), and the
University of
Kananga (Université de Kananga, created in 1985). The two
teacher
-
training centers, the National Teaching Institute-Kinshasa
(Institut Pédagogique National-Kinshasa) and the National
Teaching
Institute-Bukavu (Institut Pédagogique National--Bukavu)
also award
university-level degrees. These institutions offer
undergraduate
programs lasting four to five years leading to a
license
(the rough equivalent of a B.A. or B.S. degree). The other
institutions offer a three-year course of study leading to
a
graduat diploma (the rough equivalent of an A.A.
degree).
With Mobutu's accession to power, the drive to
nationalize and
centralize Zairian institutions, including the education
system,
eventually eclipsed all other educational policy issues.
Universities, all privately run, were the first target.
Students
there had repeatedly displayed their independence,
resisting
Mobutu's attempt at establishing on-campus chapters of his
party's
youth organization, the JMPR, as well as striking and
demonstrating
against particular state policies. Student opposition was
neutralized for a long time by the army's shooting of a
large
number of demonstrators in 1969, by closing the
universities, and
by drafting the entire student body into the army for one
year.
The autonomy of the universities themselves was
formally ended
in August 1971 by their nationalization and reorganization
as three
separate campuses under one body, UNAZA. Administration
was
centralized in Kinshasa. The takeover of the universities
and
implantation of JMPR chapters on each campus have not
succeeded in
permanently stilling dissent. Periodic closings of
campuses are
decreed by the state when student activism appears
threatening.
When such measures fail to work, force is used. In May
1990, troops
of the Special Presidential Division (Division Spéciale
Présidentielle--DSP) flew by night from Kinshasa to
Lubumbashi,
where they surrounded student dormitories and beat,
robbed, and
killed up to 100 unarmed students before returning under
cover of
darkness to the capital
(see
Subsequent
Political Developments, 1990-93;
Opposition
since 1990
, ch. 4).
Primary and secondary schools (mostly church-owned and
church
-operated) were nationalized in their turn in 1974. While
officially intended to implement the state ideology of
authenticity, the action was also motivated by the desire
to wrest
control of the schools from the powerful Roman Catholic
Church
(see Religion
, this ch.). Several years later, the government,
faced
with other more pressing crises, reversed course and
formally asked
the churches to resume their former role in school
administration.
The churches accepted. Staffs and faculties were quickly
rebuilt,
but the damage done to many schools' physical facilities
while
under state management, including the stripping of desks,
chairs,
books, doors, and windows, was so extensive that some
schools were
permanently abandoned.
Data as of December 1993
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