Free primary education: here are the changes in teachers' salaries from 2019 to date

Few teachers immediately signed on in 2019 to support the continuation of free public primary education. The reason: fear of losing several benefits derived from the payments for various school fees that were once imposed on parents. It turned out to be more fear than harm; four years later, it appears that teachers had more to gain than to lose. In fact, teachers’ salaries in certain parts of the country have nearly quadrupled despite this measure, which entails the elimination of all school fees in every form. According to the updated teacher salary table released on Monday, November 6, Congolese elementary school teachers living in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi saw their salaries rise from 168,728 FC in 2019 to 541,577 FC in 2023, an increase of 372,849 FC, or 221%. For primary school teachers living in provincial capitals, their initial salary of 155,130 FC rose during the same period to 481,413 FC. In the territories, primary school teachers received an increase of 242,949 FC, rising from 155,130 FC before the introduction of free education to 398,079 FC after the introduction of free education. Taken together, these increases nearly tripled the monthly salary budget for teachers nationwide, from 70,154,552,544 FC before free education to 236,794,289,695 FC after free education. This is thanks to the various mechanisms activated by the Government to support this measure of free primary education decreed by President Félix Tshisekedi and led by Minister Tony Mwaba. As a reminder, free public primary education entails the Congolese government covering the school fees for primary students, which were previously the responsibility of parents. Implemented since 2019, this decision has enabled more than 6 million children to return to school since 2019. Willy Kambulu