The 70% requirement for students from other sections than biochemistry, at the faculty of medicine in the DRC, is a very sensitive subject and it has aroused a lot of reactions among the Congolese. Although much remains to be done to raise the level of our education has collapsed since 1985, the Minister of the ESU is good and encouraging.

 

Nevertheless, we believe that the Minister of ESU would have difficulties in achieving his objectives, due to a lack of financial means. Education reform requires a lot of funds, estimated at millions of dollars, especially for a country continent like the Congo. Let us analyze the advantages and disadvantages of this decree.

 

First of all, we must recognize the leadership of the Minister of ESU, who has the vision to reform our higher and university education. The minister seems to have the political will and is committed to implementing the resolutions of the conference of the Estates-General held in Lubumbashi; where more than 300 participants, including teachers and other education experts, discussed and analyzed for more than a week the gaps to be filled in the Congolese education system. You can download this report here. By reading this report, we can understand that the minister’s decree wants the orientation for studies in Medicine to be made from the humanities by going to the scientific section while leaving the door open to other candidates. Among the advantages of this decree we can mention: 

 

1. The medical school will now be very competitive;
2. Students will now be able to better orient themselves to the humanities, because a student who dreams of becoming a doctor will no longer do mechanics or electricity, for example;
3.  The selection of the best candidates in medicine;
4. Good preparation before starting university, etc.
5.  

In addition, a percentage of seventy (70%) is required from pupils from other sections who would like to retrain. Although the medical school remains open to everyone, this requirement risks favoring only children from well-off families. However, research shows that children whose families cannot afford it are less successful in school than those in executives ; this phenomenon is observed in all countries of the world, in Africa as well as in the West, and the DRC is not spared. A child who goes to school every morning without eating, because his parents cannot afford it, would have difficulty obtaining 70%. As a result, disadvantaged students may not be able to continue their medical education. 

 

According to Wikipedia , the schooling rate in the DRC is 70% in urban areas and 48% in rural areas. Requiring 70% for students in parts of the country with low tuition rates would prevent some territories from not lining up medical candidates. To ensure equity, education experts should think about other more inclusive options, such as:

 

1. Consider the 70% on the pupil’s report card, or on the state exam; in this case, each student will have a better chance of meeting the admission criteria. In the classroom, for example, the pupil will have a better chance of improving his passing marks, the state exam does not give him the chance to improve;
2. Ask the universities that organize the faculty of medicine to reserve a quota of 30 to 40% of admissions to students from rural areas or from disadvantaged families;
3. Quite simply, require a preparatory year for students who have not done biochemistry or the scientific section. 

 

It is important to understand that the state exam is not an objective assessment according to research because such an assessment does not take into account other factors that can cause a student to fail: bereavement in the family, illness, anxiety, divorce or separation between mom and dad, etc. Besides, almost all developed countries (USA, Canada, Australia, China, etc.) have already gotten rid of these kinds of large-scale evaluations, also called external evaluations. An internal evaluation made by the teacher in the classroom is more objective. This is why these countries invest a lot in the training of teachers so that they know how to assess their students in the classroom. In other words, they put the child at the center of education, which is not the case in Congo today, it is the assessments that are at the center of education. A Congolese student can obtain 95% in the classroom, but if he fails the state exam he cannot pursue university studies.

 

The ESU should take into account the inequality that this order could cause to the country. Unfortunately, inequality in education is increasingly observed around the world. For example, a few years ago a CNN reporter conducted an investigation at Harvard University. In an academic program, 6,500 students are admitted each year. Of the 6,500, more than 4,000 students were from a single country, India. The journalist traveled to India to investigate where all these students came from. To the surprise, they were all families of Indian millionaires. None of them were from the middle class or from a rural background. Following this revelation, the US government passed the law that requires all prestigious universities to allocate a quota of 30% of their admissions to students from underprivileged background.

 

Moreover, it is since 1985 that national education has collapsed, and  it is since 1992 that parents have been responsible for the education of their children in the DRC. So understand that it is for more than 30 years that the Congo has not invested anything in its human capital, which remains the sole responsibility of the State. The consequences are enormous: today, for example, there is no Congolese public agency that can deploy its agents inside or abroad for any intervention. The DRC has already suffered a great development delay on all levels, the work to be done is enormous.

 

Elsewhere, governments are investing heavily in education to harness the talents of citizens, and use that influence to cooperate with other nations. For example, Cuban doctors are well trained and well known and are sent all over the world, even in the West; South African firefighters are well trained and well equipped and intervene anywhere in the world where there is the problem of bush fires, as in California, northern Canada; Chinese engineers are sent to several countries to build roads, railways, etc. This is how the nations bless one another. The DRC, on the other hand, is lagging far behind in several areas, due to a lack of human capital.

 

In short, the vision of the ESU to reform higher education and the university is good and encouraging but it will take a lot of means to achieve it. The minister’s arete should explore other more inclusive options so as not to promote inequality in education.