TENASOSP 2023/ Day 1: "It wasn't that difficult, but it wasn't that easy either" ( Divine Pululu/ Lycée Motema Mpiko)

Students in their final year of basic education—eighth grade nationwide—have been taking the National Test for Academic and Vocational Selection and Guidance (TENASOSP) since Thursday, June 15. Among the 5,276 testing centers, Lycée Toyoka, Athénée de Victoire, ITC/Victoire, and Kasa-Vubu 1, 2, and 3 are hosting students from various schools in the region for two days, through Friday, June 16, for this test. The candidates, visibly satisfied after the first day of testing, appeared confident. “We had already started preparing on Monday with the written prep; they explained the rules to us. And then, I also studied at home before the TENASOSP; it was manageable—it wasn’t very difficult, but it wasn’t that easy either,” said Divine Pululu, a student at Motema Mpiko High School. Samy Kaheka, a student at the Institut Pédagogique Scientifique de Victoire (IPSV), revealed that he had focused his preparation on reading. “And today when I arrived, I did well and it went smoothly,” said this student, who aspires to study architecture for the remainder of his academic career. For student Déborah Bisiko, from Lycée 3 Kasa-Vubu, who plans to pursue the Literary track for the remainder of her academic career in order to become a lawyer, “it went well. I prepared accordingly by reviewing the material learned in school.” It should be noted that, unlike the National Primary School Graduation Exam (ENAFEP), the TENASOSP includes an assessment of academic achievement, supplemented by student profiling based on psychometric tests. Launched last year, this test—which will be certified by a diploma—is being taken this year by 1,571,286 eighth-grade students across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including 889,037 boys and 682,248 girls. Ouriel Mangitukwa and Hugo Kambala