Haut-Katanga1 : Prefects suspended for raising EXETAT fees

The director of the Haut-Katanga 1 educational province, Joseph Mwinkeu Tshiend, and the provincial chief inspector, Nicolas Nyange Bizy, visited several schools in the city of Lubumbashi on Friday, May 19, 2023, to assess the progress of school activities. During this inspection, it was discovered that the principals of the Bakole Le Vainqueur school complex and the Lubaba la Concorde school complex in the Lubumbashi 1 subdivision had increased the fees for participating in national certification exams to 115,000 CFA francs, in violation of the provincial governor’s decree, which sets the fee at 100,000 Congolese francs. This decision was made after both school principals admitted to the facts. Provincial authority Joseph Mwinkeu Tshiend therefore decided to suspend them and require them to refund the excess amount (15,000 CFA francs per participant) to the parents of the affected students. It should be noted that the participation fee for these exams is set by a decree of the provincial governor and cannot be altered by an educational authority. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has made a toll-free number available to the public—178 for the Allô École service—to allow anyone to report misconduct of any kind. Paulin Ngenda