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Zaire Institutional Problems
The quality and status of teachers have long been
problems. A
1976
World Bank (see
Glossary) report notes that students
who
complete teacher training prefer to use the credential to
seek
positions outside their profession. Teachers' salaries are
insufficient to live on and are paid irregularly. Popular
music
reflects the declining esteem in which teachers are held,
referring
to them as "two shirts," two shirts being all the clothes
a teacher
can afford.
Schools are often seriously understaffed. One
government
response has been to require university students to teach
as
recompense for the cost of their state-subsidized
schooling.
Unfortunately, large numbers of these teachers-by-decree
regularly
fail to report to their assigned institutions.
When teachers have organized to protest their salaries
and
working conditions, they have met with repression.
Demoralized and
underpaid, many teachers resorted to corruption to make
ends meet,
accepting and sometimes demanding gifts from their
students as the
price of advancement from one year to the next. A 1988
poll
published in the periodical Zaïre-Afrique showed
that fully
80 percent of the teachers polled approved of students
giving gifts
to teachers. There was no significant difference in
responses
between educators teaching in religious schools and
educators
teaching in secular ones. Such systemic corruption has
systemic
causes; in effect, the state's unwillingness and inability
to pay
teachers a living wage has forced educators to seek income
elsewhere in order to survive, whether by moonlighting or
through
less honorable means.
Students face considerable difficulties within the
system.
Education is not free, and school fees represent a
significant
percentage of household budgets; often schooling is cut
short for
lack of funds. Boys are routinely given priority over
girls in
household allocations of school fees. Students in rural
areas can
be required to provide free labor for their schools and
teachers,
repairing classrooms and teachers' homes, or working for a
period
each day in a teacher's garden. Gifts are frequently
required for
academic advancement. Female students often face sexual
demands
from teachers and staff at the postprimary levels. And
successful
students, namely those who succeed in passing the state
exams at
the end of secondary school studies, face the hurdle of a
regional
"affirmative action admissions policy" for university
entry, one
that favors applicants from historically underrepresented
areas at
the expense of those from historically better-schooled
regions. In
fact, the regional quota system also has created tension
and
dissatisfaction within regions. Disadvantaged groups
regard the
quotas as giving those who are ahead in education an
unfair
proportion of the region's slots at the university.
In the early 1990s, the state-run education system,
like all
state-funded social services, had deteriorated further.
Most staterun schools are reported to have been closed.
Nevertheless, at
least some children (whose parents could find the means)
continue
to seek and find education through private schools at all
levels
(including several private universities reported to exist
or be in
the making in 1992) that have sprung up to fill the
gap--another
manifestation of Zaire's informal economic and social
systems. The
elite continue to send their children abroad to be
educated,
primarily in Western Europe.
Data as of December 1993
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