Literacy is the Key!

A Letter from José LaMont Jones, serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Spring 2024

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Dear friends,

Literacy, an important element of developing intelligence, is composed of understanding language, numeracy and technology. Language literacy involves using reading, writing, speaking, listening and comprehension to gain more knowledge. Without literacy, much other learning is difficult. The current reality is that as of 2022 only 85% of youth (with 69.1% being female) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are able to read and understand simple text. As a large, fast-growing country in the heart of Africa, education is key to the DRC’s future.

Directors Lutumba and Kayembe preside over the Language Teacher Training in October 2023.

Nearly half of the DRC population is primary school-aged (46.38 % of the population) and under 15 years old. In order to capture and educate this demographic, since 2019, the government has mandated free primary education to all youth. War and violence exacerbated by extreme poverty have led to inconsistent school attendance resulting in low general literacy rates. Literacy rates are even lower in the rural areas of the countryside where access to formal education is more of a challenge.

Be it urban or rural, schools find it difficult to keep up. In October 2023, the Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa (CPK) Primary Schools have joined forces and developed a pilot program to prepare their teachers for teaching the diverse populations of students and repair the problem. The pilot training was a tremendous success and is a model for other schools, CPK and beyond, to implement.

Madame Lebwaze presents on upper elementary language teaching techniques in October 2023.

The objective was to give tools to teachers for developing general literacies, specifically in language, and eventually impact literacy outcomes and, in turn, retention and promotion from primary grades and readiness for secondary education. Developing general literacy is the goal of the national curriculum in Congo during the primary years. The secondary curriculum differentiates, or applies, the general literacies among different subjects.

The first step in training teachers is to help them have an appreciation for engaging students in lessons. Classroom discipline is important to this process. Directrice Antoine Lutumba of CPK Ecole Primaire Presbyterienne (Presbyterian Primary School) Masina is an expert on discipline. At her school, each of the six grades has more than 100 students per class! Yet, EPP Masina has, for years, promoted 100% of their sixth-grade students to secondary school. Any visitor can see how orderly and attentive the students and the learning process are at EPP Masina. Directrice Lutumba presented on discipline. She discussed classroom and school rules, appropriate exchange with students/parents, student expectations but also teacher expectations.

Madame Mayamba presents on lower elementary language teaching techniques in October 2023.

Essential to training is the process of evaluation of learning. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a topic that should be well-known to all educators. Director Jean Jacque Kayembe of Ecole Primaire (Elementary School) no. 4 Lemba Sud, presented an overview of Bloom’s Taxonomy to explain to the participants how learning can be demonstrated at various levels of difficulty, which is described in the hierarchy of knowing in Bloom’s Taxonomy. This was only an introduction but a teaser for future in-service training on the topic.

Finally, two, very effective trainers from the Gazelle School; Madame Francoise Lebwaze and Madame Kabibi Mayamba presented reading and writing techniques for teaching. This was presented at two levels: lower elementary (grades 1-3) and upper elementary (grades 4-6). These presentations were designed to get the year started correctly and to show how the lower and upper elementary years of instruction develop language literacy and prepare the students for secondary school. It also sets up the teachers for ongoing in-services for applying these concepts and developing their teaching expertise.

CPK pilot school language training closing photo from October 2023.

Forty-two teachers completed the training. Great thanks are due to the principals of the six primary schools who organized and sent their staff despite the heavy rains that, I am sure, affected the overall attendance. Teacher evaluations were very positive in terms of content and information shared. The next step will be to further train the teachers in the National Program, the national standardized curriculum on which the annual exams are based.

Thanks are also due to the Principals Lutumba and Kayembe who insisted upon, asked for, designed, and implemented the pilot language training this Fall. It is important for teachers and principals to share responsibility for making sure they have the necessary training to provide quality education to their students. We are looking forward to improvements on last year’s testing results!

José