Kongo central 3: experts revisit textbook procurement and distribution strategy

Experts from various departments within the General Secretariat of National Education and New Citizenship and from the coordination team of the Project for the Improvement of Primary Education Quality (PEQIP) determined the textbook requirements for French, mathematics, and science for all public primary schools in the country, based on a ratio of three students per textbook. This took place during a workshop on revising the strategy for the procurement and free distribution of textbooks throughout the country, held from December 10 to 16, 2024, in Kasangulu, in the administrative province of Kongo-Central. The workshop also made it possible to quantify the need for teacher’s guides—containing structured lesson plans to accompany each textbook—with the goal of providing one subject guide per teacher. Students in the final grades (5th and 6th) of public primary schools, as well as teachers, will be well-equipped for the 2025–2026 school year, according to the PEQIP project’s WhatsApp channel. Nearly 62,376 public primary schools spread across the DRC’s 26 administrative provinces will be targeted by this distribution effort. Approximately 5,478,530 textbooks and 447,402 workbooks will be delivered to the DRC’s 60 educational provinces, it was announced Monday at the workshop’s closing ceremony. In total, 2,982,007 students and 76,162 teachers in the 5th grade of primary school, as well as 2,496,523 students and 72,972 teachers in the 6th grade of primary school, will benefit from these textbooks. This initiative is part of the Primary Education Quality Improvement Project (PEQIP), funded by the Global Partnership for Education through the World Bank. Willy Kambulu