Back to school 2023: EPST expects between 800,000 and 1 million new pupils this year

Between 800,000 and 1,000,000 new students are expected to return to school this year. This estimate comes from Minister Tony Mwaba Kazadi. He made the statement during an interview with Top Congo Radio in Kinshasa. "The trend will not remain the same after so many years of enrollment; in 2019, 2020, and 2021, we enrolled many children on the ground," he said. He clarified that "the average number of children over four years who have returned to the educational path they were previously deprived of due to school fees was at least 1,250,000 each year, and the figure of one million will not remain the same. It could be lower, and that could, in fact, be proof that we have truly reached all the children in the field who were deprived of schooling. The average will now be around 800,000, 900,000, or 1 million." It should be noted that the EPST, which succeeded in implementing free education in all public primary schools, is now working to sustain and consolidate this achievement, notably through the fight against negative values, capacity-building for various managers regarding personnel management and operating costs, etc. Cynthia Kanama