School inspectorate: Jacques Odia launches work to evaluate the 2022-2023 financial year

Under the theme “The Role of Inspection in Good Governance and Accountability for Improving the Quality of Education,” the meeting of school inspectors to evaluate educational activities began on Tuesday, August 15, 2023, in Kinshasa, in the N’sele district. Speaking first, Inspector General Jacques Odia began by thanking the Head of State and his government, before outlining the various topics to be addressed during the proceedings. “I need not remind you that the Head of State spares no effort to provide the Inspectorate with the resources necessary for its proper functioning so that it can achieve its assigned objectives,” he said. Rising Statistics at ENAFEP and TENASOSP Thanks to these efforts by the Congolese government, the Inspector General noted that the General Inspectorate has been able to undertake several initiatives, including the clearance of the 2015 stock of diplomas valued at $1,500,000, the delivery of a significant batch of overdue state diplomas, and the payment of examiners for the State Exams of the 2021, 2022, and 2023 sessions. Regarding school activities, the chief Congolese school inspector deemed his administration’s performance positive. He based this assessment in particular on the rising statistics of candidates for the National Selection and School Orientation Test (TENASOSP). That is, 1,571,285 candidates, including 682,248 girls, and 2,119,000 candidates for the National Primary School Completion Exam (ENAFEP), including 1,020,448 girls. Staff Capacity Building and Innovations Continuing in this vein, he also highlighted the improvements made at all levels of the Ministry of Primary, Secondary, and Technical Education (EPST) during the 2022–2023 fiscal year. These include the training of more than 2,400 school principals, 920 supervisors, and 845 teachers and inspectors in the agro-industrial sector. At the preschool level, standards for the organization of preschool education were developed and disseminated. This initiative resulted in a new program for this level of education. At the primary level, Jacques Odia mentioned the implementation and dissemination of the module on educational leadership in 17 educational provinces. At the secondary level, he mentioned, among other things, the publication and dissemination of science teaching methods, which, following training in 54 educational provinces, led to a single innovation: designating all options in mathematics, physics, and biology-chemistry under the term "Sciences." Participants’ Expectations According to Nicolas Nyange, Chief Provincial Inspector of Haut-Katanga 1, “they will thoroughly examine the weaknesses identified during the 2022–2023 school year to improve and properly prepare for the upcoming school year.” To this end, Enock Mukunto, Deputy Inspector General, “hopes to implement all the recommendations from this workshop.” It should be noted that this workshop, attended by 60 inspectors, will focus on monitoring, training, governance, combating anti-values, and collaboration. Thierry Mbebangu