Excellentia Scholarship: 130 girls and 124 boys eligible this year

More girls than boys meet the eligibility criteria set by the Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi Foundation for the Excellentia scholarship. The foundation revealed this information on its social media pages on Monday, October 2, 2023. Of the 254 Exetat graduates who scored at least 85% in the 2023 exam, 130 are girls and 124 are boys. This list was provided by the Ministry of Primary, Secondary, and Technical Education (EPST) to the DNT Foundation for obvious reasons of ensuring the reliability of the results. These eligible candidates will take the admission test for this scholarship. As usual, this test will be administered by the foundation. "Get ready to meet the future leaders who will illuminate our future; candidates will be contacted by phone to be informed of the practical arrangements regarding the test," writes this foundation of the First Lady of the DRC on X (formerly Twitter). As a reminder, in 2010, the ministry adopted a strategy for the development of the primary education subsector, and an Interim Education Plan (PIE) was developed for its implementation in 2012. Both documents address the specific issue of girls’ enrollment within the “Progressive Universalization of Primary Education” component. In addition, several programs to promote girls’ enrollment have been implemented in recent years. The real boost to this government policy came from the introduction of free public primary education, which took effect in 2019. It must be said that previously, parents favored boys over girls. According to some of them, girls were destined to be married off and manage the household. Investing in their schooling was therefore considered a waste of money they did not have in the first place. Célestin Zeula