Effective resumption of classes and school activities nationwide

After a two-week break for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, students returned to school on Monday, January 9, 2023, in accordance with the school calendar. Classes have resumed in all educational provinces. This is also the case in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Everything is back to normal from the very first day at Gombe Elementary School. This is what Carl Mukalay, a fourth^-grade teacher, says:

“Classes have resumed as usual, although some students are still hanging around at home. We are following the curriculum in accordance with the school calendar established by the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education. I urge all students who are still at home to join us so they don’t fall behind in their studies,” he said.

The streets of Kinshasa are filled with students in their blue-and-white uniforms. In the Lingwala district, we met a student who told us: “We studied as usual. We did some math and French exercises.”

The same is true in other neighborhoods of Kinshasa. At the Cardinal Monsengwo School Complex in the Limete district, hundreds of students can be seen in the schoolyard, excited to return to school after this time.

“We welcomed a large number of students,” says Joël Malonda, discipline officer at the Jacques-André Verdaud School Complex in the Ngiri-Ngiri district. He commends the parents who did not keep their children at home:

“I would like to thank the parents who always support us in our mission to educate, which is, above all, theirs as well. Thanks to them, classes have resumed,” he said before issuing this appeal: “The future of our country lies in the hands of our schoolchildren. Let’s send them to school so they can acquire the knowledge necessary for their own development and that of their country.”

It should be noted that since the start of this school year, classes have remained on schedule despite multiple calls for strikes.

Deleine DIAZOLAKANA and Paulin NGENDA