** in Kisangani, the end of the educational cauldron: redevelopment or revolution? **
Kisangani, April 9, 2025. A topical air floating in the educational province Tshopo 1, and yet the smell of inertia is palpable. Provincial director Alain Mwimbi Mwimbi says the school calendar has not changed. A breath of relief for some? Maybe. But for others, this redevelopment is only a sleight of hand. Like a play where we play on the thread of appearances. In full effervescence, this situation raises much deeper questions than simple management of dates.
Indeed, beyond the students who juggle between their books and the bells of the schools, a painting of glaring inequalities is emerging. Yes, there are two school calendars in Tshopo 1: one for those who have never known the strike and another for those who suffered from it. The director insists on respecting the dates of the certification tests, but at what cost? Teachers, students, and even parents, all plunged into the agitated sea of an education system in crisis.
If we take a look at the socio -political nuances in the DRC, we cannot help seeing a parallel with the 1990s. The democratic revolution, the promise of education for all, all this has generated hopes that the country is struggling to materialize. Is the teachers’ strike today a reflection of an accumulated fed up? An education maintained on the wire of the razor, where the very identity of the Congolese school is questioned. By juggling two calendars, are we not going to a two-speed education?
Let’s go back to this famous redevelopment. Although it is portrayed as a harmonious solution to the repercussions of the strike, is this choice really fair? Will some students find it difficult to catch up with their comrades? The differences are insidiously settled, and the promise of apparent equality then becomes a bitter joke.
In reality, Alain Mwimbi’s words come up against lived experience. Talking about “recovery” to “be at the same level of equality” seems a little casual, almost provocative, when you know that equality in education is often an illusion. What about rural schools, lost in the complex canvas of bureaucracy? What about students who are undergoing the weight of strikes, interruptions provided by requests for justice for their teachers?
The Congolese educational landscape emerges as a gigantic laboratory of disparities. A crisis that lasts, undermined by a lack of means, failing infrastructure and often unhappy staff. Basically, what impact will these temporary changes have thousands of children whose desire is to learn? Will they be the new victims of a system that never seems to reform in depth, but is content to patch up the cracks?
Between the redevelopment and the real reform emerges a chasm. While the ancient objectives of a universal education seem to vanish, the question remains: will the Congolese school can cross the milestone of this flickering, transcendent of the strike towards a promising future? For the moment, in Kisangani, the calendar – this symbol of hope, renewal – is a simple parchment on a desk. The students continue to sail in this educational cauldron, desperately looking for a compass which guides them towards equality.
An endless trip, filled with uncertainty, but also resilience. This is how, in the animated street of Kisangani, that we learn that the struggle takes many forms – sometimes it starts with the simple fact of being present in class and daring to ask why the world does not turn as it should.