U nesco in the

Congo

by Garry Fullerton

U nesco

Published in 1964 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Place de Fontenoy, Paris-Te Printed by Firmin-Didot, Mesnil-sur-l’Estr6e (Eure)

0 Unesco 1964 printed in France MC. 63/D.54/A

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Preface

From June 1960, when the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) became independent, until January 1963, world attention focused mainly on the military aspects of the Congo situation. The civi- lian operations of the United Nations and its Specialized Agen- cies, although they began almost as soon as the military aid and were financed like it by the United Nations Congo Fund, received much less notice.

Now, however, after three years of international aid to the Congo, it is possible to review in perspective this extensive civilian programme which may prove, in the long run, of even greater significance than the military operations.

Nearly all the agencies of the United Nations system have taken part in this effort. The World Health Organization has sent doctors, nurses and medical technicians to staff existing hospitals in the Congo and establish new ones. Experts of the Food and Agriculture Organization have set up a training school for agricultural mechanics and helped to control epidemics of cattle disease. Technicians of the International Telecommuni- cations Union have helped to re-establish and service telephone, telegraph and radio communications. International Civil Avia- tion Organization specialists have manned airport control towers while training Congolese replacements. Still other ope- rations have involved personnel, funds and equipment of the International Labour Organisation, the United Nations Chil- dren’s Fund (Unicef), the Universal Postal Union and the World Meteorological Organization.

This booklet illustrates some of the activities of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It

is based on official Unesco and United Nations reports and on observations of the author, a staff member of Unesco’s Depart- ment of Mass Communication, during a mission to the Congo in April and May 1963.

Unesco came to the aid of the Congo in response to a reso- lution of the United Nations Security Council of 22 July 1960, and at the request of the Congolese government. In August 1960, Mr. Rem5 Maheu, then Deputy Director General of Unesco, visited the Congo, and by November a first programme of assistance had been established and was approved by the Execu- tive Board. Mr. Maurice Dartigue of the Unesco Secretariat was appointed chief of the Unesco mission in Leopoldville; in August 1961, he was succeeded by Mr. P. C. Terenzio. Both of them also served as chief educational consultant to the Chief of United Nations Civilian Operations in the Congo.

Unesco has tried to help the Congolese government do several things: develop secondary education and improve primary education, create new institutions of higher learning and train educational administrators, adapt educational systems to the needs of the Congo and provide machinery for future develop- ment, safeguard the research activity of major scientific institu- tions, and develop information media to serve the new nation.

With Unesco’s help, the Congolese government has adopted a global approach to education, dealing with all aspects of it simultaneously and at all levels: educational planning, finance and administration; curriculum reform; teacher training; technical and vocational education; school construction: training jour- nalists and information specialists: educational radio; purchase and distribution of books and school supplies; and development of audio-visual aids.

This booklet tells about these programmes and activities, but above all it tells about people-the people of the Congo and their problems, and the men and women from all parts of the world who have come to the Congo to help solve them.

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19 Expertise on the move

25 Training for :a technological world

31 Raw materials of knowledge

37 A paradise In crisis

41 The reformers

47 Conclusion

49 Appendix

Contents

Teachers for today . . . and tomorrow

Teachers for today. . . and tomorrow

Nearly fifty years ago, Stanislas Kotynski and his older brother set out from their home inWarsaw on a journey to Africa.

They did not get very far, however. At the city limits, a kindly policeman picked them up and returned them to their family. Stanislas was 7 years old at the time, his brother 10.

Now, half a century later, Stanislas Kotynski has finally realized his ambition to go to Africa. He and his wife, Mrs.Wanda Kotynska, are two of the nearly 800 teachers which the Congolese government has recruited with the help of Unesco to staff its secondary schools.

Mr. Kotynski, a construction engineer and an internationally known expert in the economics of the building industry, was recruited to teach mathematics but has since become the direc- tor of the Congo’s new Institute of Building and PublicWorks. Mrs. Kotynska, who completed her university education in Paris, teaches French at a nearby Protestant school.

At the present time, foreign teachers are an essential part of the Congo’s secondary education system. Before independence there were virtually no Congolese trained as secondary school teachers, and the handful which had been trained by 1960 were desperately needed for high administrative positions in the new nation’s government. With Unesco’s help, a National Institute of Education was set up to train teachers but its first classes will not graduate until 1964. Meanwhile the Congo must have foreign teachers to staff its expanding school system.

Under a bilateral technical assistance programme of the Belgian government, a number of Belgian teachers who had been in the Congo before independence remained at their posts. In

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addition, Unesco has helped the Congolese government to recruit French-speaking teachers from all parts of the world. Their ranks have swelled from 66 in 1960-61 to nearly 800 in 196344.

When I visited the Congo in April 1963, there were 556 of these Unesco-assisted teachers, representing twenty-five different nationalities. Although employed by the Congolese government, they were paid one-third of their salaries in foreign currency by Unesco.

Haitians were the most numerous of these teachers in 1962-63. There were 123 of them. Other principal nationalities were Belgians (99), French (85). Lebanese (60). But there were also teachers from Spain, Italy, United Arab Republic, Syria, Greece, Afghanistan, Poland, Canada, Honduras, Viet-Nam, United States of America, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, China, Luxem- bourg, Mexico, Rwanda, United Kingdom, Colombiaand Sweden.

It is not unusual for a school faculty to include teachers from a dozen different nations, and one-the athenCe (secondary school) at Goma-has teachers from fifteen countries.

A desire to help

What made these teachers come to the Congo? Their motives are as varied as their nationalities and professional qualifications: ‘wanted to travel’, ‘good salaries’, ‘spirit of adventure’, ‘desire to see a different part of the world’, ‘always interested in Africa’.

Also. while they generally do not talk about it, most of the teachers are imbued with a genuine desire to help the Congo and its people. This leads them to devote an incredible amount of spare time, evenings and weekends, to extra activities with their students. Their wives often volunteer to give homemaking classes to girls and women in the community.

At least one seeker of ‘adventure’ probably found more than he was looking for. He is Emile Lejeune, a French high school teacher at Albertville, who was appointed in May 1963 to co- ordinate flood relief operations when Lake Tanganyika rose five feet above normal and threatened the city. On the job daily from 6 a.m. until late at night, Mr. Lejeune directed more than 1,000 relief workers, including an entire battalion of the Con- golese national army, several Boy Scout troops, volunteers from

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the Christian Young Workers organization and medical teams of the World Health Organization.

The majority of the Unesco teachers are assigned to State schools, but in 1962-63 116 were recruited for Catholic schools, twenty-two for Protestant schools and three for other religious schools. In addition, several of the teachers were detached to serve as technical advisers to the Ministers of Education in the newly-created provinces.

Such is the case with Jesus Garcia Perez-Bances, who gave up a distinguished career in law and philosophy in Spain ‘in order to watch a new nation in birth’. Mr. Garcia was assigned to the province of Unit61 Kasaienne, whose capital is Tshikapa, but when I talked with him last May, he was still living with his wife and children in Luluabourg, 125 miles away, because no housing was available at Tshikapa.

Housing is one of the main difficulties facing the foreign teachers, especially in the ‘bush’-the Congo’s vast interior. Often two or three families must share a house and this occa- sionally leads to friction. Food, too, is a problem except in the region of Goma and Bukavu. where the people enjoy straw- berries all year around. In Kasai, for example, meat is a rarity and fresh vegetables bring premium prices, when they can be had.

Chairs from home

Difficult living conditions are matched by difficult teaching conditions in many places. In the larger cities there are some well-equipped schools, but at Kabinda the students bring their own chairs from home because the classrooms are bare. There is also a tremendous shortage throughout the Congo of text- books, laboratory equipment, visual aids and school supplies in general.

Faced with these conditions, how well have the teachers been able to do their job ? With a few exceptions, they have done well, and some have been outstanding.

‘Unesco’s aid has been extremely precious to us in the difficult years following independence’, said Michel Colin, the Congo’s Minister of Education. And other Congolese authorities acknowledge frankly that without the foreign teachers under the

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Unesco and Belgian technical assistance programmes there would be no secondary education in the Congo today.

Merely keeping the schools open was not enough, however. It was also necessary to expand them by making maximum use of the teachers and classroom space available, for secondary schools have been the major bottleneck in the Congo’s educa- tional system. In 1960, for example, the official figures showed 1.5 million pupils in the primary schools, and there were two universities capable of receiving a large number of students. But only 152 Congolese completed their secondary education that year. (In fact, Congolese had been admitted to official secondary schools only since 1954.)

With Unesco’s help, therefore, the government embarked on a national emergency programme to boost secondary school attendance. The results have been impressive. Total enrolment rose from 28,900 in 1959-60 to 54,000 in 1961-62 and to 65,000 in 1962-63. At the same time, a number of secondary school in- spectors have been recruited in an effort both to improve the quality of teaching and to train Congolese inspectors for these functions.

Foreign teachers are still being recruited for Congo schools, and the Ministry of Education has estimated that the need for them will continue to grow until 1967, reaching a peak of 7.000 before levelling off as Congolese are trained to take their places. It seems unlikely, however, that this many can be pro- vided, even with the combined efforts of the Congolese govern- ment and bilateral and international assistance. Thus, Congo secondary schools may be short-staffed for some years to come.

‘Would you advise a colleague back home to come to the Congo to teach ?’ I asked Gilbert Austin, a young Haitian who teaches English and mathematics at the &e&e of Luluabourg.

‘Several of my friends have asked me that same question’, he replied thoughtfully. ‘I usually tell them something like this: if you’re just interested in the money, don’t do it. You need to have some kind of crusading spirit or a sense of mission. Other- wise, you won’t last.’

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Teachers for tomorrow

While the Congo must rely on foreign teachers to staff its secondary schools at present, eventually they will be replaced by Congolese. At independence, however, there were virtually no Congolese teachers at the secondary level and no facilities for training them. To fill this gap, the new government gave top priority to the creation of a National Institute of Education.

The institute, which opened its doors on 5 December 1961, is a prime example of international co-operation. Headed by a Congolese director, its staff includes Unesco experts from twelve different nations. It receives financial assistance from the Congolese government, the United Nations, the United States AID programme and the British Council.

At the same time, as the institute’s first director noted in his inaugural address, it is very much a national institution by the recruitment of its students, by its programme of studies and by the nature of the needs it seeks to satisfy.

Students come to the institute, better known as IPN (Ins- titut Pedagogique National), from all provinces of the Congo. They are admitted regardless of ethnic origin, sex or religious beliefs. The sole requirements are high scholastic standing and a pledge to teach or work in educational administration for at least ten years.

Its programme of studies, in addition to the normal teacher’s college subjects, lays heavy emphasis on African linguistics, African and Congolese societies and institutions, cultural anthropology and sociology. By stressing the Congo’s own heri- tage, it hopes to become what Joseph Ngalula, former Minister of Education, called ‘an instrument of mental decolonization’.

Ren6 Maheu, Director-General of Unesco, sees the institute’s task as ‘not so much to satisfy the legitimate demand of every nation to be master in its own house, but to seek out and bring to light the creative forces of culture and civilization which every people carries in itself’.

At present there are only two young women among the 207 students enrolled at the school. However, the decision to admit women on the same basis as men is of prime importance, for teaching has traditionally been a male monopoly in the Congo. Until recently, few girls received more than two years of primary education, and far fewer received enough to become teachers.

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___ .___ -..__ -.. -

‘We believe in equality for women’, said pretty Maria Dacruz, one of IPN’s two ‘co-eds’.

‘The boys say they do, too’, she added with a twinkle, ‘but l think some of them are a little afraid that if women get too much education, wives won’t obey their husbands any more.’

Miss Dacruz, 19, and her colleague, Fid6lie Mianda, 20. are among the youngest students at the institute. The average age is 25 to 30. Most of the students are also married and have had several years’ experience in teaching primary grades. Many of them have been directors of primary schools.

Nearly all the students are enthusiastic supporters of the stu- dent association at the school which plays a lively and interesting role in IPN affairs, though sometimes causing headaches for the administration. Like their colleagues at the Congo’s two technical institutes, IPN students went on strike early in 1963 to protest against the problems they faced. One of the principal problems is that there is no housing for married students at the school, and they are obliged to find accommodation in town, very often at high rents and at great distances from the school. Since there is very little public trans- portation in Leopoldville, the school furnishes two buses to bring them to class, but, as one boy put it: ‘If one of them breaks down, we’re out of luck.’

Some of the students also complain that too many hours are taken up with classes and that they do not have enough time to prepare their lessons at home.

‘We have 1,180 hours of class a year’, said Philibert Malamba. associate president of the student association.

‘But we’re really proud of our institute’, he added. ‘You know the students from other schools are afraid to come here. The work is too hard for them.’

Experimental curriculum

The man chiefly responsible for IPN’s course of studies is Antonio Chiappano, an intense, hard-working Italian who was formerly educational director of the Societa Humanitaria at Milan. Mr. Chiappano feels very strongly that the curriculum must combine the best experience of all nations and yet be adapted specifically to the Congo.

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‘We know that our experience is not directly transferable to this situation’, he said, ‘but we don’t know yet what can be saved and what must be thrown out. We are in a process of constant revision and self-correction. This school is above all experimental.What we learn here will be applied when additional teacher-training institutions are set up.’

To Mr. Chiappano, the fact that the faculty represents twelve nations is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

‘Each of these countries has its own educational tradition, and the richness which results from the confrontation of these different cultures is an enormous benefit’, he said. ‘At the same time, it is not easy to develop this group into a homogeneous working team.’

IPN’s first class will not graduate until June 1964, and even when it reaches its ‘full production’ of about 100 graduates a year, it will not come anywhere near filling the needs of the Congo’s secondary schools. Many other institutions will have to be built on the same lines.

IPN’s graduates, however, are certainly destined to become leaders of their nation in every sense of the word. Their ideal, spelled out by one speaker at the inauguration, is ‘a rather new type of man, knowing and loving his country, deeply rooted in his own society and at the same time open to the world, capable of understanding men and ideas from elsewhere, a man to whom nothing human will be strange, in short: the ideal Congolese’.

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Expertise on the move

One rainy morning in April 1963, three young French citizens set out from Bukavu to cross the parallel ranges of mountains which separate the East African lakes from the Congo River basin.

Three days and over 400 miles later they reached their desti- nation, the steamy river port of Kindu. Their heavily-loaded jeep station wagon had averaged twelve miles an hour over roads that were little more than jungle paths, across slippery pontoon bridges rocked by churning flood waters, through swamps where mud choked the axles and water reached the floorboards.

Exhausted they arrived on the east bank of the Lualaba only to find that the ferry to Kindu had broken down. In a daze they transferred cases of supplies and equipment from the station wagon to a motor boat and crossed the river, returning the next day with the disabled ferry and a tug to recover the vehicle.

While journeys such as this are not exactly everyday events for the members of Unesco’s mobile teams in the Congo, they illustrate the kind of difficulty these modern day pioneers can expect to face.

The mobile teams, created by Unesco at the request of the Congolese government, travel about in an area the size of Wes- tern Europe, giving four-week refresher courses to selected primary school teachers, principals and inspectors. Each team consists of three Unesco experts plus a Unicef specialist in home economics, hygiene and nutrition.

‘Captain’, of the Kindu team, whose base of operations is Bukavu. is Georges Vouillon, a good-humoured, pipe-smoking Frenchman who teaches general education principles and child psychology. Like many other team members, he has spent a

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number of years in Africa as an education adviser. His colleagues include Claude Valot and Miss Annette Taburet, both French, and Jules Francisque, a Haitian.

Miss Taburet, of course, is the hygiene and nutrition expert. Mr. Valot teaches French and arithmetic, and Mr. Francisque teaches education methods in history, geography, science and manual training.

It is a moving experience to watch the team in action in one of the refresher courses. Behind the easy-going informality of the instructors lies a desperate urge to communicate as much of their specialized knowledge as possible in the short time avail- able. This is matched by an intense eagerness on the part of the participants bent on extracting the maximum benefit from an opportunity which is all too rare.

Instructors and participants alike face staggering odds in their efforts to improve the new nation’s primary education. In 1960 only 3,500 of the 16,000 schools provided teaching beyond the second grade. Some 70 per cent of the pupils leave school before completing four years and are thus destined almost inevitably to return to illiteracy. Only 9 per cent obtain primary school certificates (six years), and each one of these graduates costs the State the equivalent of forty-two years of schooling. Although French is the official language of instruction, many of the Congo’s 42,000 primary teachers are incapable of teaching in it. While some schools in the larger cities are fairly well equipped, the usual school in the ‘bush’ consists of four poles and a thatched roof. Very often there are no tables, chairs, desks or benches, no blackboards, chalk, notebooks or pencils, few textbooks and no visual aids of any kind.

After outlining a series of measures to deal with this situation, a document of the Ministry of Education warned bluntly in April 1963 that until such measures are adopted the money spent on primary education in the Congo ‘will constitute not an invest- ment but a wastage of public funds’.

The situation was further complicated at the very beginning of the 1962-63 school year by administrative upheavals resulting from the creation of a number of new provinces in the Congo. Among the consequences of this were the sudden and unforeseen transfer of teaching personnel from one locality to another, a certain disparity of administrative organization from one province to another, and finally the almost complete disappearance of school records and statistics.

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‘When we first arrived in Kivu’, Mr. Vouillon told me, ‘there was no one who knew how many schools there were or where they were.’

Luckily, some records were kept by the missionaries, Catholic and Protestant, who operate more than 90 per cent of the primary schools with government assistance, and Unesco experts with their aid have begun to reconstruct the data on which future plans must be based.

First results

In the face of this situation, Unesco’s four mobile teams (plus a fifth which supplies them with audio-visual materials) can naturally only scratch the surface of what needs to be done. However, the project which began in October 1962 on an expe- rimental basis has already enjoyed a remarkable success, and its results are beginning to be visible.

In Kindu, for example, I talked with Benoit Kayombo, a primary school inspector, who told me how he had already put into practice a number of the lessons he learned at a course in Bukavu several months earlier. All his teachers now instruct their classes in the fundamentals of hygiene, for instance, and he has begun shifting the best teachers to the first and second years of school where they can do the most good instead of reserving them for the upper grades.

As of April 1963, some 1,702 teachers had taken part in courses at fourteen different places throughout the Congo, and at least that many more had to be turned down and persuaded to wait for later courses. Eventually, according to Roger Garraud, a French Unesco expert who co-ordinated the mobile teams, more teams will have to be created and the courses will have to take fewer participants for longer periods of time. In addition, it is hoped that Congolese experts may soon be associated with the teams and eventually form teams of their own to continue the activity.

Some critics have suggested that the courses be held during the summer months instead of during the school year, as at present, but this would make it difficult to conduct model lessons and demonstration classes which are one of the best features of the present courses.

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Although often discouraged by the enormous difficulties of their task, team members feel more than compensated by the warmth with which they are received.

‘The best reward a teacher can have is a class that is interested and eager to learn’, said one instructor.

And the sentiment is matched by that of the participants who have discovered, as one of them put it, ‘that there are people in the world, of a different race but able to understand us and help us, and who consider us as colleagues’.

Airborne builder

One man who moves around even more than the mobile teams is Eugene Palumbo, for whom architecture is anything but a sitting-down occupation. During a five-month period early in 1963, he travelled more than 24,000 miles in every part of the Congo, supervising the young nation’s ambitious school building programme.

To accomplish these journeys he used almost every conceivable means of transportation, from giant military aircraft to tiny, single-engine planes, and from school buses to rugged jeeps and Land Rovers for cross-country travel in the bush.

Recruited by Unesco at the request of the Congolese govern- ment, Mr. Palumbo is probably the only man in the country who holds office in two ministries at the same time-the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Works.

Like many other Unesco experts in various fields, he is no strangerto Africaor thecongo. Educated in Milan and Lausanne, where he received degrees in topography as well as architecture, he first came to the Congo in 1952, following nine years’ building experience in Italy. His first jobs in the tropics were designing service cities for the great dam building projects at Zongo on the lnkisi River and Bendera on the Kiymbi.

In 1959, Mr. Palumbo went to Switzerland where he spent two years as a school architect before returning to Leopoldville in August 1962.

Asked why he chose to work in Africa, he answered with a shrug. ‘Mostly, it’s freedom to work’, he said. ‘Architects in Europe are handicapped by the old traditions, at least until they become pretty successful. If you want to do something new and

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different, you have to go to the new countries. I came here because I wanted to build, and I’m having the time of my life doing it.’

The architect admits frankly, however, that he did not expect the work to be quite as overwhelming as it has turned out. With only two draughtsmen to aid him, Mr. Palumbo prepares preliminary sketches, final designs and complete work plans for each of the projects. He draws up specifications and cost esti- mates, helps to select contractors and helps the contractors find the materials they need. Finally, he supervises the construction from start to finish, and all of this in a programme expected to cost 619 million Congolese francs (nearly $10 million) and covering an area of 900,000 square miles.

‘Architecture is like music’

Mr. Palumbo waved his hand impatiently when a visitor calcula- ted that if he received the normal architect’s commissions he would make something like fifty times as much as his Unesco salary.

‘I could retire after a year’s work’, he said, ‘but one doesn’t live for money, one lives for the pleasure of living. Architecture is like music. You takea programme and make something beautiful out of it.’

Most of Palumbo’s major creations so far are still in the course of construction. They include complexes of classroom buildings and residences at the National Institute of Education and the National Institute of Building and Public Works, both at Leopold- ville, the National Institute of Mines at Bukavu, and the ache&e at Kenge. Other buildings are being erected at the Institute for Medical Teaching at Leopoldville and at the National School of Law and Administration in nearby Ozone.

The remainder of the programme includes classroom additions and teachers’ homes at secondary schools throughout the Congo. Mr. Palumbo has tried to work out standard designs for these which make the maximum use both of prefabricated elements and materials available locally. The task is complicated, however, by the fact that construction costs vary as much as 200 per cent from one part of the Congo to another. The principal factor is the cost and the length of time for transporting materials, but

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risks of theft are also greater in some areas and this means a greater outlay for insurance.

Since no funds are available for such luxuries asair conditioning, Palumbo does his best to keep his buildings cool by using heat- resistant materials, providing sun breaks and plenty of ventila- tion, and orienting them on the site to take advantage of available shade and breezes.

The budget also leaves nothing for decoration, but Palumbo does not mind this. It is part of the challenge, and it fits in nicely with his philosophy of architecture.

‘It is the function of the building which makes it beautiful and provides the decoration’, he said. ‘You can do all sorts of interes- ting things with the play of light and shadow and the pattern of filled spaces and empty spaces in a building.’

The National Institute of Education is a beautiful example of Palumbo’s skill in tying building to site in a harmonious ensemble. Located on a tall hill in the residential suburb of Binza, the buildings command an impressive view on all sides, particularly the campus of Lovanium University to the east, and downtown Leopoldville, Stanley Pool and Brazzaville to the west and north.

Completed so far are a classroom building, laboratories and refectory. Another classroom building and a residence hall are being added this year, with still more classrooms, an auditorium and a gymnasium to follow in 1964.

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Training for a technological world

Gustave Nsubayi’s father, like most of the Congolese of his generation, could neither read nor write, but he saw to it that his children got a good education.

From the family farm at Gandajika in southern Kasai, young Gustave walked daily to the mission school three miles away. Bright in class, he won a scholarship for four years of secondary school, later added a year of technical training. Today, at 21, he is one of the most promising students at the new National Institute of Building and Public Works.

The institute is one of two schools created by the Congolese government, with the help of Unesco, to overcome the shortage of technicians which faced the country after independence. The other is the National Institute of Mines, located in the green hills of Bukavu above Lake Kivu on the Congo’s eastern border.

Both institutes give intensive practical and theoretical training to a limited number of students at the post secondary level. The average class week for Gustave Nsubayi, for example, includes three hours of arithmetic, three of algebra, three of plane and solid geometry, two of trigonometry, three of descriptive geometry, four of mechanical drawing, five of physics, five of French, one of civic instruction and five hours of ‘lab’ work in shop or construction projects.

‘And besides that, we spend three or four hours a day studying outside of class’, Mr. Nsubayi told me, as we sat and talked in one of the Institute’s cluttered buildings in the Leopoldville suburb of Ozone. ‘It doesn’t leave much time for recreation.’

Like most of the seventy-three students at the institute, Mr. Nsubayi is studying mainly in the hope of getting a good job.

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Graduates of the two technical institutes may enter the mining and construction industries as engineering technicians, field supervisors or works supervisors. On the other hand, they may also go on to obtain university degrees as architects and engi- neers. For the next few years at least, many of them will also be drafted for administrative positions in the central government and the provincial governments.

Across the Congo in Bukavu, students at the Institute of Mines follow a course of study just as rigorous as their col- leagues at the Institute of Building and Public Works. But their director, an affable Swiss geological engineer, Dr. Robert Kern, also insists on strenuous field trips as a means of tough- ening them for the rugged conditions they will encounter in the mining industry.

One day, for example, he got them out of bed at 4 a.m. to climb the steep slopes of Niragongo volcano whose ominous shape dominates the northern end of Lake Kivu. During the trip, which lasted until well after sundown, the students also absorbed more geology than they normally learn in a week of classwork.

‘You know, it wasn’t easy’, Dr. Kern said later. ‘Some of these lads from Leopoldville or the Kasai have never seen a mountain before in their lives. But I was proud of them. Out of nearly fifty boys, only one didn’t make it.’

Bukavu was chosen for the mining school for several reasons. First, it is close to the tin and gold mines of Kivu, and not far from the copper, cobalt and tin of Katanga. Several of the larger companies have agreed to take Dr. Kern’s students as trainees during the summer months, enabling them to test in practice what they have learned in class. Others have contributed supplies and equipment to the school.

Secondly, the region surrounding Bukavu is extremely varied and interesting from a geological point of view. Niragongo Is only one of several volcanoes in the area, and its jagged, twisted lava fields provide fascinating material for study.

Finally, the government-sponsored Centre for Mining Research at Bukavu has laboratory equipment which is the envy of many European universities and which will be used by classes at the institute.

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Copper and diamonds

At the rate of forty graduates a year, it will be many years before the institute can fill the many vacancies in the mining industry for it occupies by far the most important place in the Congo’s economy. Katanga alone produces 7 per cent of the world’s copper and two-thirds of its cobalt. Its uranium mines, which furnished the raw material for the first atomic bombs, are no longer profitable commercially, but there are sizeable deposits of zinc, radium, germanium, cadmium and silver in the province. North Katanga and Kivu are important producers of tin, while Kasai contains the world’s largest industrial diamond mines.

Even to maintain present levels of production, many Congolese must be trained to fill the places of European engineers and tech- nicians who have left the country since independence. But beyond that, the future development of the industry depends upon systematic exploration of new sources of minerals, and this is another important task of the mining school.

Since prospection is not very highly developed among the mining companies now operating in the Congo, Dr. Kern and his associates plan to create a special research section at the school. This section will adapt traditional prospecting methods to Congo conditions, study new techniques, and also give practical training in the field to the mining students.

Though located at opposite sides of the Congo, both technical institutes have many problems in common. One of these is difficult living conditions for the students. Gustave Nsubayi receives a State scholarship of 4,500 Congolese francs a month. If he were married, like some of his colleagues, he would get another 1,500 francs for his wife and 500 for each child.

At the official rate of exchange, 4,500 francs equals $70, but its real purchasing power in Leopoldville or Bukavu is probably not much more than half of that. Even with subsidized housing (available at present for only a handful of students at each school), this is difficult to live on, and there have been student demon- strations at both schools recently, asking that it be increased.

Stanislas Kotynski, who has been director of the Institute of Building and PublicWorks since November 1962, calls thestu- dents’ living conditions his number one problem.

‘Things will be much better when we get the new dormitory finished’, he told me, ‘but until then.. . we just have to do the best we can.’

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‘The best we can’ includes an amazing amount of voluntary after-hours work by Mr. Kotynski and other faculty members to make life easier and pleasanter for their students.

Every Sunday, for example, physics professor Raymond Doret, presents a cinema programme for students and their families, using films which he begs or borrows from the Ministry of Education, and some of the embassies in Leopoldville.

Twice a week there are homemaking classes for students’ wives. These are conducted by Mrs. Fransois Spirlet, wife of the young superintendent of the institute.

Other problems faced by the two institutes are a shortage of textbooks, supplies and equipment, especially for teaching science, and a shortage of teachers. Mr. Kotynski, a specialist in economic problems of the building industry and author of several books on the subject in his native Poland, teaches eight hours of mathematics weekly in addition to his administrative duties. His first-year curriculum calls for five hours of architecture,too, but this was not taught in 1962-63 because no professor was avail- able. Similarly, Dr. Kern’s faculty had only part-time chemistry and physics teachers, because full-time ones were not available.

Both schools are staffed entirely by foreign teachers broughtto the Congo by Unesco, but it is hoped that eventuallythese will be replaced by graduates of Lovanium or Elisabethville universities.

Top of the pyramid

The two technical institutes stand at the peak of the Congo’s fast-growing pyramid of technical and vocational education. Below them, scattered throughout the provinces, are eighty-one professional schools, which offer four years of training at the secondary level, and ninety-nine ‘artisanal’ schools, which offer two years. In addition, there are two six-year technical high schools, one at Leopoldville, the other at Luluabourg.

Unfortunately, there is at present very little standardization in the Congo’s technical education, and these schools vary tre- mendously both in what they teach and in the quality of the instruction. Systematic inspection of them is virtually impos- sible, because of a lack of trained personnel and also because of transportation and communication difficulties across the Congo’s vast distances.

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Therefore, the Congolese government, with the assistance of Unesco, has developed a plan to recast the entire system of technical education, bringing it more into line with the country’s manpower needs in agriculture, business and industry.

Under this plan, which is part of the Congo’s over-all reform of secondary education, all students will have the same course, called cycle d’orientotion, for the first two years of high school. After that, they can take either two years of trade school, plus a year’s apprenticeship, or four years in any one of six technical high school sections: commerce and administration, agriculture, mechanics, electricity, construction, or industrial chemistry. Upon graduation, they can go directly into business or industry or apply for one of the higher technical institutes or the uni- versity.

Neither the personnel nor the funds exist to put the whole of this ambitious system into effect immediately, but the Congolese authorities are optimistic about the future. They recognize the truth in the words which Gustave Nsubayi heard the day he began classes at his new school: ‘It is not we who are going to profit from the independence we have won, it is our children. And the young people must understand this:;that they are not working for their own personal happiness, but for the happiness of their children.’

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Raw materials of knowledge

Of all the busy offices in Leopoldville one of the busiest is the Ministry of Education’s Purchasing and Distribution Centre for Scholastic Materials. Under the watchful eye of Gaston Lambot, a soft-spoken Unesco purchasing expert seconded to the government, a handful of harried accountants, secretaries and clerks process piles of book requisitions, order forms, in- voices and other correspondance, while stock clerks manoeuvre heavy crates of supplies and equipment.

Though it was barely four months old when I visited it in May 1963, the centre had already placed orders for more than $1 million worth of books and supplies for the Congo’s mush- rooming school system. Under the terms of the decree which created it, the centre handles all orders for educational materials for Protestant, Catholic, Kibangist and private schools, as well as State schools, and at all levels from primary school up to Lovanium and Elisabethville universities. The only exception is advanced laboratory equipment for the universities.

The centre was formally established by a ministerial decree of 2 February 1963 with several objectives: To bring some order into the haphazard system of buying

school supplies which had previously prevailed. To achieve economies through bulk buying and bulk shipment

of these supplies. To standardize prices of school equipment, books and supplies

throughout the Congo. To make more efficient use of Unesco Coupons and import

licenses for importing supplies from hard currency areas. Although it is still in the development stage, the centre has

already achieved some remarkable results. For example, students’ notebooks which used to cost 7 Congolese francs are now being sold for 1.50, and teachers’ record books have come down from 35 francs to 8 francs. Before the centre was set up ball-point pens sold for a few francs at Leopoldville but several times as much at Boma, 45 miles away. Now the price isvirtuallythesame through- out the Congo, except for normal shipping charges.

The centre was originally established with a revolving fund of 20 million Congolese francs, enabling it to place orders for books and other supplies before actually receiving the neces- sary credits from the schools. So many orders came in so fast, however’ that within four months it became necessary to add another 30 million francs to the fund.

The Prefects (principals or headmasters) of the secondary schools place their orders for books and supplies directly with the centre. For primary schools, however, the orders are first consolidated by the Catholic Office of Education and the Protes- tant Office of Education for the schools under their jurisdiction, and the provincial Ministries of Education for the State schools.

After receiving the orders, which may or may not be accom- panied by the credits, Mr. Lambot and his colleagues take money from the revolving fund and use it either directly for purchases made in the Congo itself or to buy Unesco Coupons for pur- chases abroad.

Unesco Coupons

Even before the establishment of the centre, the Congo had become one of the largest users in the world of the Unesco Coupon scheme which was established in 1949 to enable coun- tries with currency problems to purchase books and periodicals from other currency areas. The coupons, an international medium of exchange for educational, scientific and cultural equipment and supplies, can be paid for in so-called ‘soft’ currencies and redeemed, by the suppliers, in hard currencies.

By March 1963, some $50 million worth of Unesco Coupons had been sold and redeemed around the world. Out of this total, the Congo had accounted for $6 million and it was second only to France in the total amount of coupons used.

When it set up the centre, the Congolese Ministry of Educa-

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tion imposed a 2 per cent handling charge on all transactions involving Unesco Coupons. This is used to cover the adminis- trative costs of the centre, and any money left over goes into a ‘Special Fund’ which can be spent, at the discretion of the Ministry of Education, for the improvement of education in the Congo.

Such has been the success of the programme to date that the Special Fund has been able to equip the entire library of the Ministry of Education with textbooks, reference works and subscriptions to education journals. In addition, it is hoped that the fund will be large enough eventually to send a coffret peda- gogiqoe-a small crate of books and visual aids-to each of the 42,000 primary school teachers in the Congo.

The centre has been praised both by Father Ekwa, president of the Catholic Office of Education, and Pastor Regard, his counter- part in the Protestant Office of Education, for its thoroughness and efficiency, but Mr. Lambot is working on systems to improve its service still further. In particular he is trying to augment the purchase of books and supplies through import licenses and through the expenditure of Congolese francs in the Congo itself.

By the beginning of the school year 1964-65, given a normal expansion in the printing industry in the Congo, Mr. Lambot hopes to be able to produce locally many of the publications required by the primary schools. Copyrights for the works would be purchased from foreign publishers, but the printing would be done locally and paid for in Congolese francs, thus resulting in a considerable saving for the school system. If this works out, the system will be extended in subsequent years to cover secondary school textbooks as well.

Training the fourth estate

Just as important as supplying textbooks for school-children is the problem of getting information to the people who have left school. Indeed, freedom of information is the cornerstone of responsible government. Not only must there be enough newspapers and magazines and enough radio and television stations, but these must be staffed by men and women capable of gathering, reporting and interpreting news in a responsible and objective manner.

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In the Congo, following independence, these conditions did not exist. The personnel of the Congo National Radio (RNC) and of the daily and weekly newspapers had been almost entirely European, and like their colleagues in other professions most of them left the new nation. Furthermore, a few Congolese journalists who had received some professional training left the profession in order to become cabinet ministers, ambassadors or other high officials in the national government.

Thus, at the very moment when national interests required the best possible news reporting, editors and producers found themselves with inexperienced and untrained staffs, lacking not only professional qualifications but general education as well.

Upon the request of the Congolese government for aid in this situation, and following a survey made by Ren6 Caloz, a Unesco expert, in 1961, Unesco dispatched a team of four experts to the Congo, headed by Antoine DesRoches, a veteran of twenty years in the radio and newspaper business in Montreal. Mr. Des- Roches, who was immediately attached to the Office of the Minister of Information, was assisted by Hifzi Topuz, former editor-in-chief of an Istanbul daily and now a professor of jour- nalism, Francis Cook, a news agency specialist, and Raymond H. Paccard, an expert in educational radio.

While Mr. DesRoches advised the government on reorganizing its own information services and began preparing draft statutes for this, Mr. Cook and Mr. Paccard were assigned to Radio Congo, the former to help to train editors and newscasters, and the latter to improve the scope and effectiveness of the educational programmes. Meanwhile, Mr. Topuz organized a seminar to train newspaper and magazine writers and news agency per- sonnel.

Atlhough this programme got under way only towards the end of 1962, the results were already apparent when I visited Leopoldville in April 1963. Newscasts in French and in the four principal national languages (Lingala, Kikongo, Tshiluba and Swahili) had improved markedly both in content and in presen- tation. The central news staff, despite low pay and poor working conditions, had learned how to edit news agency dispatches, prepare broadcasts and develop a sense of timing. Furthermore, though handicapped by a high rate of turnover due to political instability, they were beginning to function as a team.

As for educational broadcasts, the average time devoted to them each week had more than doubled since December 1962,

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when Mr. Paccard began operations. To the original programmes, hints to farmers and to housewives, he had added courses in modern languages (French, German and English) and a pro- gramme entitled ‘Know Your Country’, with general informa- tion about the Congo and the African continent. Also included were three educational programmes produced by outside sources-Otraco (the Office of Transports in the Congo), the Leopoldville Lion’s Club and a savings bank.

Although he receives letters from listeners scattered all over the vast nation, Mr. Paccard has no way of knowing for sure how large his audience is. The best estimates place it at some- where between 150,000 and 200,000 people, out of a total population of 14 million. This, in turn, is based on a radio manufacturer’s guess that there are not more than 15,000 radio receivers operating in the Congo today.

For this reason, Mr. Paccard has begun to shift his program- ming to take greater advantage of the times and places at which groups of people listen to the radio together. In practice, this boils down to three main types of programme: 1. School programmes, including courses in French for both

students and teachers, and applied education for the teachers themselves.

2. Programmes directed toward special groups, such as women’s organizations, social centres and health centres, including lectures on nutrition, cooking, hygiene and other subjects.

3. ‘Spot’ announcements, slogans, brief skits, illustrating such subjects as first aid and road safety, sandwiched in between popular music for groups collected in bars and market- places.

While Mr. Paccard has been producing these programmes and supervising their translation and broadcast in the vernacular languages, he has also been training the Congolese specialists who will eventually run the service themselves. Like their colleagues on the news side, these men have begun to work as a team.

Paul Katanga, one of the graduates of Mr. Topuz’s four-month seminar for journalists (October 1962 to February 1963) was later named Secretary of State for Information in the national government. Several others obtained scholarships for advanced study abroad, and one of the two leading Leopoldville dailies, Le Progrk, completely changed its typography and layout as a result of the course.

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Altogether sixty-one journalists started the course and forty-four completed it, the rest having dropped out because of pressure of work, transfers to other cities or to foreign countries or appointments to government posts. The students included newspaper and magazine reporters and editors, personnel of Radio Congo and the Ministry of Information, reporters for the Congolese Press Agency, and a number of press attaches from foreign embassies in Leopoldville.

Conducted only during morning hours (the participants continued their regular jobs while studying), the course included lectures on African history and geography, law, political eco- nomy, administration, current events and literature, as well as technical and professional training. At the end, the lectures were reproduced and bound together, constituting Africa’s first journalism textbook.

A second seminar, this one conducted for two months on a full-time basis, brought together twenty-eight journalists from the various provinces in order to develop a network of trained correspondents for the Congolese Press Agency and the Ministry of Information. It, too, combined general education with pro- fessional training and actual ‘laboratory’ work in radio, news- papers and magazines.

At the same time, both Congolese authorities and Unesco experts agreed that journalism education should be placed on a more permanent basis, and Mr. Topuz drafted detailed proposals for the creation of a journalism section in the National School of Law and Administration. This project has been accepted both by the school and by the Ministry of Information and is being studied by other departments of the government.

Mr. DesRoches, for his part, drafted, a total of five statutes governing the entire field of mass communication in the Congo. They deal respectively with journalism as a profession, such government publications as Congo Magazine and Congo Presse, the Ministry of Information, Radio Congo and the Congolese Press Agency. In the fall of 1963, the draft statutes were under study by the government and it was hoped that they would be put into effect before the end of the year.

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A paradise in crisis

‘A scientist’s dream of paradise.’ This is the way an eminent seismologist recently described the Institute for Scientific Research in Central Africa (IRSAC).

And indeed, an ambition to create something of the sort must have inspired the Belgian scholars who designed and built the great research centre at Lwiro in the Congo’s Kivu province. Located in a lush and beautiful countryside, far from any large cities, but furnished with a superb library and the most modern laboratory equipment, IRSAC offers the scientist both an opportunity for quiet concentration and the stimulation of intellectual companionship.

No visitor to IRSAC, no matter how neglected his science education, could fail to be impressed with the uncluttered spa- ciousness of its biological laboratories, the precision of its ionospheric and solar radiation measuring devices, the beauty and comfort of its staff dwellings and guest houses.

Even the approach is spectacular. From Bukavu, the road to the north winds through the hills high above Lake Kivu. Breath- taking views of the lake and its surrounding volcanoes alternate with close-ups of thatched-hut villages. Banana trees and stately pines grow side by side, emphasizing the enormous variety of vegetation. At the end of twenty-five miles, a side road brings you unexpectedly to an imposing gate, where a uniformed guard salutes smartly as the station wagon glides through. A few hundred yards further, the Swiss chalet-styled staff houses come into view, and then the vast laboratories themselves, sprawled across a windy, grassy plateau.

Unfortunately, even the most casual visitor soon learns that

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a large part of this magnificent installation is standing idle. A tiny handful of scientists and technicians are acting as caretakers for premises and equipment that once occupied a scientific staff of more than sixty, and a general service staff of about 300.

IRSAC, like other scientific institutions in the Congo such as the Institute of National Parks (IPNC) and the Institute for Agronomic Studies (INEAC), has been a victim of the financial difficulties and political instability which followed the Congo’s independence in 1960. On the other hand, the fact that it is still functioning at all reflects a recognition by the Congolese autho- rities of its importance as well as Unesco’s concern for its protection and the continuation of its research activities.

Founded in Brussels in 1947, IRSAC undertook some scientific activity even while its centres were being built and equipped. Its full research programme, however, dates only from the inauguration of the buildings in 1956. In addition to the principal centre at Lwiro, the installations included laboratories for botany, zoology and climatology at Mabali in the heart of the Congo River basin; a station for hydrobiology and zoology at Uvira on the shores of Lake Tanganyika; a centre for anthropo- logy, sociology, botany and seismology at Astrida (Rwanda), and a small medical biological laboratory at Elisabethville.

Conceived at the outset as a centre for both basic and applied research, IRSAC has concentrated a substantial part of its programme on problems of direct social and economic interest to the Congo. Examples of this are its nutrition studies, research for pest control programmes and the hydrobiological research on Lake Tanganyika (more than 400 species of fish have been found to flourish in its waters).

On the other hand, certain of its projects are less directly related to social and economic objectives but of a much more general worldwide scientific interest. This category includes the seismological and other geophysical studies of the East African Rift, ionospheric research and measurements of solar radiation and geomagnetism. In addition, many of the basic research pro- jects in botany, zoology, parasitology and biochemistry have no immediate practical application.

One of the important features of IRSAC’s work has been the development of cross-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary approaches to research. At first informally and later through periodic seminars, scientists from different specialized fields developed co-ordinated attacks on common problems, resulting

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in significant progress in methodology, interpretation of data and over-all understanding of natural phenomena.

Working in this fashion, IRSAC had produced by 1960 more than 1,000 basic or applied research studies, ranging from a few pages in some of the physical sciences to several hundred pages in the social sciences. In addition to its permanent staff, moreover, the centre at Lwiro attracted many visiting scientists from abroad who came there to work on special projects. Despite its relative isolation, Lwiro also served as the location for a sizeable number of international scientific gatherings.

Unfortunately, IRSAC had not expanded its scientific staff to the point where it could make optimum use of its elaborate facilities when its growth was interrupted by financial and poli- tical insecurity in the aftermath of the Congo’s independence. Added to this, tribal difficulties in the surrounding area, the inability to import supplies and equipment from abroad and, above all, the uncertainty of IRSAC’s future led many researchers to leave in the following two years. Furthermore, some of those who remained were unable to carry on effective work because their projects required team research rather than solitary efforts.

In the face of this situation, one of Unesco’s first actions in the Congo was to negotiate with United Nations, Congolese and Belgian authorities to secure financing of IRSAC on an emer- gency basis and to provide military protection both for the research centres themselves and for the transport of funds to them. Later, a regular annual budget was established, under which the Belgian government bears most of the cost of the foreign scientists and technicians working at IRSAC, while the Congolese government pays the salaries of Congolese personnel as well as operating and maintenance costs.

Unesco was also able to secure joint Belgian and Congolese financing and gifts from private foundations for the Institute of National Parks which has under its jurisdiction the great parks of Upemba and Garamba, as well as the 1,926,600-acre Albert National Park. Conservation experts have called these parks ‘the most efficiently managed’ in the tropical world. Wild- life in the Albert Park, particularly, has been intensively studied by scientists of fifteen nations.

A preliminary advisory mission to IRSAC in 1961 by Alain Gille, Unesco’s Science Officer for Africa, was followed by a second in 1962, in which Mr. Gille was accompanied by a consultant, Dr. E. B. Worthington.

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The greatest need, however, was for a new charter to govern IRSAC’s activities and to assure its orderly transformation from a Belgian institution to a Congolese one. It should be explained that although technically the institute is already Congolese property, it is still administered, at the request of the Congolese authorities, by its former board of directors in Brussels.

The task of drawing up a charter or statute for the institute was confided to Louis ZieglC, a French scientist assigned by Unesco to help the Congolese government develop an over-all science policy. Following an exhaustive study of scientific resources and problems in the Congo in late 1962 and early 1963, Mr. Ziegle drafted two texts, one proposing the creation of an interministerial committee on science policy to co-ordinate all research activities in the Congo, and the other setting up a new administrative structure for IRSAC. The two texts were under consideration by the Congolese government in the fall of 1963.

Although IRSAC’s main crisis is probably over now, neither Mr. Ziegle nor anyone else thinks that adoption of the two statutes would automatically solve all its problems. It would, however, provide a sound framework within which future development could take place. A number of science foundations, for example, both in Europe and America, have indicated a willingness to subsidize researchers in projects at IRSAC. A few such grants, in fact, have already been received.

There is reason to hope, therefore, that IRSAC may be once again on the road toward fulfilling the dream of its founders.

‘France has its College de France and its lnstitut Pasteur’, they wrote, ‘the United States its Carnegie Foundation and Smithso- nian Institution and Rockefeller Institute, and Germany its network of Max Planck Institutes. IRSAC, by its thinking and research on Africa, but also through its international fame and prestige, can help the Congo become, in the heart of Africa, the great country it deserves to be.’

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The reformers

In the Congo River basin city of Coquilhatville, 13-year-old Joseph Mbala is beginning his secondary education in the 1963-64 school year. He already has a good command of French in addi- tion to his mother tongue, Lingala. When he graduates in June 1969 and prepares to enter the university, he will be able to speak, read and write English as well.

In addition, Joseph Mbala will take with him a broad know- ledge of world history and world geography and Africa’s place in them. He will be familiar with the early civilizations of China and Greece, for example, the rise of Christianity and the rise of Islam, but all from an African point of view. He will have studied the great African empires of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the decline of Africa in the seventeenth century and its rebirth in the twentieth. He will have become acquainted with the major works of African literature as well as those of Orient and Occident in French translations.

Above all, Joseph Mbala will have learned the importance of scientific and cultural progress in the march of civilization. He will have acquired understanding of and respect for peoples of other cultures, races and religions, without in any way diminishing his love for his own country.

In actual fact, Joseph Mbala does not exist, but he is typical of thousands of young Congolese boys and girls who do exist, and the education described above is similar to what they will receive if the reforms which Unesco has helped plan are carried through to completion. Achievement of the plans would give the Congo a secondary school system superior to that of many other countries and equal, in some respects, to any in the world.

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Should this happen, it would be a far cry from the secondary school system which the Congo inherited when it became inde- pendent in June 1960. That system was designed primarily for European children and simply transplanted European curricula, teaching methods and textbooks to tropical Africa. It had certain advantages, one of which was a high standard of academic excel- lence.

On the other hand, it had the disadvantages of disregarding the way of life of African children outside the classroom, and of failing to prepare them for the life they were to lead after leaving school. These shortcomings, coupled with the fact that the first Congolese were not admitted to secondary school until 1954, made the system unsatisfactory for a modern, independent nation.

It was thus that the Congolese government decided to over- haul and streamline the system, modernizing it to take advan- tage of the latest educational research, Africanizing it, particu- larly in such subjects as history and geography, and adapting it to the Congo’s own critical needs for trained personnel at the intermediate and higher levels.

For this purpose, a Reform Commission was appointed on 7 February 1961. Headed by Henri Takizala, secretary-general of the Ministry of National Education, it included representatives of the administration, the Catholic Office of Education, the Protestant Office of Education, the University of Lovanium, primary education and technical education. It also included such Unesco advisers as Robert Hennion, formerly associate director of the Unesco Institute for Education at Hamburg, and Antonio Chiappano.

Working at top speed, this dedicated group turned in its first report in less than five months. It proposed the division of all secondary education into two cycles: a first ‘orientation’ cycle of two years, with all students taking the same courses; and a second cycle of four years, with specialized sections. The report included a detailed programme of studies for the first year of the orientation cycle and a recommendation that this be put into effect immediately while programmes were being developed for the following years.

The principal immediate objective of secondary education in the Congo, the commission noted, must be to train enough Congolese to replace the foreign technicians and specialists upon whom the country must rely at present. This involves a

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vast expansion in the numbers of students without a correspon- ding decrease in quality of instruction.

Therefore, the commission added, the level of scholastic achievement demanded for the diploma must remain high enough so that Congolese graduates can be admitted to univer- sities not only in the Congo but anywhere in the world. At the same time, it is hoped that the number of graduates will grow to about 7,000 a year by 1967, based on a secondary school enrolment of about 10 per cent of the age group.

The most significant difference between the new system and the old is that the new one is ‘promotional’, seeking to advance as many students as possible, without sacrificing quality, rather than limiting itself, through rigid selection, to the education of a tiny elite. Of the children who began secondary school under the old system, very few completed their six-year studies, and the others-the academic failures-constituted a group difficult to absorb into the society. They had too much education for some types of employment but not enough for the jobs they wanted.

However, the commission warned, the success of a ‘promo- tional’ system depends to a great extent on the attitude of the teachers. They must ask themselves, the report said, not: ‘Which of these students will meet the formal criteria of the system ?’ but rather: ‘How, in the prescribed length of time, can I lead the greatest number of students, taken as they are, to the level of knowledge and of maturity required for graduation ?’

Even sympathetic teachers would not be enough to assure the success of the reform, however, unless they were backed up by conscientious and knowledgeable administrators. Therefore, while the Reform Commission continued its work, Congolese authorities began, with Unesco’s help, to train the officials in the central and provincial Ministries of Education who would be responsible for carrying out the new system.

Some of this training was given on the job by Unesco experts, but in addition, two groups of officials were sent to Geneva for nine months of intensive training in a programme jointly spon- sored by Unesco and the International Bureau of Education. Their studies included regular courses at the University of Geneva and its Institute of Educational Sciences, special seminars designed specifically for them, and lectures by Unesco staff members. These were supplemented by study visits to Swiss, French, Italian and Australian schools.

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The 1962-63 group, which numbered four senior officials of the central Ministry and six from provincial Ministries of Educa- tion, decided to meet periodically following their return to the Congo to compare notes on the best methods of applying what they had learned.

In the curriculum which the Reform Commission devised for the two-year orientation cycle, approximately halfthe class hours are devoted to French and mathematics. This is designed to give the students, regardless of their previous primary training, the essential tools for the acquisition of the other subjects in the secondary curriculum.

The wide range of other required courses in the orientation cycle (religious and civic instruction, history, science, geography, technology, music and drawing) is meant to do two things: To give the student a background of general knowledge which

he needs regardless of later specialization, and which is particularly useful if he is forced to suspend his education or cease it entirely after the two years.

To enable the student to discover his interests and aptitudes and so make an intelligent choice of section for the continua- tion of his secondary education.

The specialized sections of the four-year cycle, on the other hand, are designed to allow the student either to continue his studies at the university level or to begin work in his chosen field immediately after graduation. Thus students in the teaching section, for example, can either become primary school teachers upon graduation, or continue their studies at the National Institute of Education in order to become secondary school teachers or educational administrators.

Similar choices are offered to students in the science, huma- nities, commercial-administrative and agricultural sections, and in the four technical sections: mechanics, electricity, construction and industrial chemistry. Thus, whether a student stops his education after two, four or six years of secondary school, or whether he continues on in higher education, the plan assures, theoretically at least, that the knowledge he has gained will be put to use.

In September 1963, the reform of secondary education had already been put into effect for the two years of the orientation cycle, and the first year of the four-year cycle was due to be applied in 1963-64. Tremendous obstacles, however, lie be- tween the plan on paper and its application in reality.

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One of the most important of these, discussed in an earlier chapter, is the shortage of teachers. Not only is there an over-all shortage of teachers, which the various international and bilateral technical assistance programmes have just begun to fill, but there are even more critical shortages of teachers in specific subjects. It will be many years, for example, before the technical sections represent a real choice for the average Congolese stu- dent, simply because there are no teachers to staff them.

A second major obstacle is the shortage of textbooks and other teaching materials. Again, not only is there an over-all shortage of books in the Congo, but the books which do exist are largely those which were used in the old system, and the histories and geographies in particular are ill-adapted to the new courses. And again, it is the science and technical sections which are the worst off, for they lack laboratory and shop equipment as well as texts.

Still another obstacle, closely related to the other two, is a lack of funds. At the present time, 37 per cent of the Congo’s national budget goes for education, afantastically high percentage, but even this is not enough to meet the needs. Furthermore, only 14 per cent of all the money devoted to education goes for secondary schools. A vast increase will be required in the next few years, if the reform is to become a reality.

Finally, although the plans for reform have received over- whelming approval from the vast majority of Congolese con- cerned with education, a small but vocal minority has remained opposed to it. In part this stems from the natural conservatism of educational traditionalists; in part it reflects a suspicion, quite erroneous as a matter of fact, that the reform is an attempt to ‘water down’ the old curriculum for Congolese consumption.

These psychological obstacles are gradually being overcome, however, and if the tough problems of teachers, books and money can be solved, the Reform Commission’s plans can become a concrete reality for the Joseph Mbalas of the future. Should this succeed, there is little doubt that it will constitute Unesco’s most important contribution to the Congo.

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Conclusion

The children now being born in the Congo will grow with their country and help it grow, for their country, as an independent nation, is not much older than they are. Their life may not be a great deal easier than has been that of their parents. Indeed, it may be harder, for the transition from a traditional society to a modern industrial one is never easy, and circums- tances in the Congo have combined to make it particularly difficult.

Now that the years of crisis are over, however, these children can serve as living symbols of the helping hand which Unesco and the other United Nations agencies have extended to their country. In the autumn of 1963, as this book goes to press, Unesco’s activities in the Congo have probably reached their peak. Nearly 800 foreign teachers, recruited with Unesco’s help, are teaching in Congolese secondary schools. More than 100 experts in education, science and mass communication are helping the central and provincial governments improve their services. Thousands of young, intelligent and enthusiastic Congo- lese are being trained to assume the complicated tasks of social and economic development.

During the years of crisis, Unesco’s operations have been financed principally by the United Nations Congo Fund, but within the next year or so, it is expected that there will be a gradual ‘normalization’ of the international assistance pro- grammes which will take their usual form and scope. In the field of competence of Unesco, future aid will be partly sup- ported by Unesco’s Regular Budget, but for the major part it will be provided under the Expanded Programme of Technical

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Assistance, through the United Nations Special Fund and through joint projects of Unesco and Unicef.

Meanwhile, the children of the Congo also symbolize the courage and determination of the Congolese people, without which any amount of outside aid would be useless. If they are lucky, they will also inherit something of the sense of humour which has often proved the saving grace of their parents, for this as well as faith will be sorely needed in the difficult period which the Congo must pass through before it achieves the position of greatness to which it seems destined.

Finally, the children of the Congo can symbolize for Africa and for the world the good which can be accomplished when nations join together to aid each other. As the Secretary- General of the United Nations has pointed out, this international co-operation in the Congo ‘has provided a bridge from the des- perate situation which existed in July 1960, to a solid basis from which the government and the peoples of the Congo can now progress toward a prosperous and peaceful future’.

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Appendix

30 June

1 WY

7 July

15 July

22 July

26 July

12 August

Chronology of Unesco’s aid to the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville)

1960

The Republic of the Congo attained independence. The Republic of the Congo applied for admission to the United Nations. - ’ The United Nations Security Council unanimously recommended to the General Assembly approval of the Congo’s application. Mr. Sture C. Linner, Swedish businessman, was appointed Resident Representative of the United Nations Technical Assistance Board (UNTAB) in the Congo. The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolu- tion inviting all the Specialised Agencies of the United Nations system to ‘render to the Secretary General such assistance as he may require’ in aiding the Congo. Mr. Linner was named Chief of United Nations Civilian Operations in the Congo (ONUC) while continuing to act as Resident Representative of UNTAB. Sir Alexander MacFarquhar was named Special Adviser on Civilian Operations in the Congo at United Nations Headquarters, New York. In a report to the Security Council on implementa- tion of its resolution of 22 July, the Secretary General announced that Mr. Linner would be assisted by a consultative group of senior experts in eleven fields: agriculture, communications, education, finance, foreign trade, health, instruction of national security forces, labour market, magistrature, natural resour- ces and industry, and public administration. At the specific request of the Congolese government, these experts would be available to serve, with senior responsibility, in various ministries and departments on an ad hoc basis.

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P---- -- -- -- -._ ____. -..“-.

12 August Mr. Rene Maheu. Deputy Director-General of Unesco. went to Leopoldville to acquaint himself with the nature of the needs for which Unesco’s help might be required and with the measures to be taken to ensure that the assistance provided was as effective as possible. He was accompanied by Mr. Edmond Sylvain of Haiti, subsequently appointed jointly by Unesco and the United Nations for a period of three months to serve as the educational expert in the consultative group at ONUC and as Unesco’s chief representative in the Congo.

17 August Mr. Pierre Mulele. then Minister of National Educa- tion and the Fine Arts, sent the Director-General an official request for assistance in obtaining secondary and technical school teachers and for experts to help to strengthen the services of the central Ministry of Education. Mr. El Sayed Osman, an educationalexpert attached to the Economic Commission for Africa, was immediately assigned to the Ministry of Education. It was also agreed that until experts could be recruit- ed for the Congo, Unesco officials would be sent there on short missions to help out.

4 October The Secretary General of the United Nations authorized Unesco to recruit a total of 500 secondary school teachers for the Congo, the estimated cost of $3.349.000 for one year to be borne by the United Nations.

7 October The first expert in educational administration arrived in Leopoldville. During the next few months an additional fifteen experts were sent to the Congo.

19 October A memorandum was signed by Unesco and the Congolese authorities setting forth their respective responsibilities toward the teachers to be recruited. An exchange of letters between Unesco and the United Nations spelled out, in turn, their respective obligations.

16 November The Executive Board of Unesco adopted a resolution approving the actions already taken by the Director- General in the Congo and authorizing him to recruit teachers and furnish technical assistance to the Congo.

26 November The Congo was admitted as a Member State of Unesco.

30 November The Director-General addressed an urgent appeal to the governments of all Member States for help in recruiting French-speaking teachers for the Congo as quickly as possible.

November Mr. Maurice Dartigue of the Unesco Secretariat was appointed to succeed Mr. Sylvain as chief of the Unesco mission in Leopoldville.

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14 December The General Conference of Unesco adopted a reso- lution giving the Director-General the necessary authorization for a programme of aid to the Congo in 1961-I 962.

1961

January-March A total of sixty-six teachers, recruited with Unesco’s help, were sent to the Congo.

7 February A Commission for the Reform of Secondary Educa- tion was appointed by the Congolese government. Headed by Mr. Henri Takizala, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Education, it included represen- tatives of the administration, the Catholic Office of Education, the Protestant Office of Education, the University of Lovanium, primary education and technical education, as well as Unesco advisers.

March Through Unesco’s efforts, interim financing was assured for the Institute of National Parks in the Congo (IPNC) and the Institute for Scientific Research in Central Africa (IRSAC).

18 April The Congo ratified the Convention for the Protec- tion of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

21 April The United Nations General Assembly decided to open an ad hoc account for the expenses of the United Nations operations in the Congo for 1961. to appropriate $100 million for these purposes, and to apportion this amount as expenses of the Orga- nization among the Member States in accordance with the scale of assessment for the regular budget. It also urged permanent members of the Security Council to make sizeable additional contributions and appealed to all other Member States who were in a position to do so to make voluntary contributions.

May A two-week refresher course was held at Leopold- ville for educational administrators.

29 June The Reform Commission announced its first recom- mendations, proposing the division of the secondary school curriculum into two cycles of two and four years respectively.

June The Executive Board authorized the Director- General to continue to answer requests for aid from the central and provincial governments of the Congo.

17 July A decree of the Chief of State ordered the reform to take effect beginning with the school year 1961-62.

10 August Creation of a National Institute of Education ap- proved by Unesco and ONUC, toserve as training centre for secondary school teachers.

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August

22 September

September

8 October

23 October

30 October

November

3 December

20 December

4 March

May

September

Mr. P. C. Terenzio of the Unesco Secretariat suc- ceeded Mr. Dartigue as chief of the Unesco mission in Leopoldville. Series of three experimental refresher courses organized for primary school teachers at Luluabourg. The Chief of State signed a decree creating the Natio- nal Institute of Education. Unesco Coupon scheme began operations in Congo, allowing books and other school equipment to be purchased abroad with Congolese currency. National Institute of Education inaugurated at Binza, near Leopoldville, in ceremonies attended by Mr. Cyrille Adoula, Prime Minister of the Congo, Mr. Joseph Ngalula, Minister of National Education, and Mr. Ren6 Maheu, Acting Director-General of Unesco. Training course for senior Congolese education officials opened at Geneva under sponsorship of Unesco and International Bureau of Education. United Nations General Assembly authorized Secretary General to continue until 31 December to incur commitments for United Nations operations in the Congo at a level not to exceed $10 million a month. Unesco Executive Board authorized Director- General to carry out programme of aid to Congo in 1962. National Institute of Education began classes with seventy-five students. United Nations General Assembly continued finan- cial authorization for Congo operations for 1962 at an average monthly rate not to exceed $10 million.

1962

National Institute of Building and Public Works created by ONUC and Unesco. Unesco Executive Board noted with satisfaction the work already accomplished in the Congo, and asked the Director-General to prepare proposals for 1963 and 1964 to be incorporated in the programme to be presented to the General Conference in November 1962. Four mobile teams began a series of refresher courses for primary school teachers and principals in various parts of the Congo. Four mass communication experts arrived in Leopold- ville to aid the Congolese government in improving information services, radio and newspapers, and educational radio.

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29 October Four-month course for fifty journalists began at Leopoldville.

8 December The National Institute of Mines was inaugurated at Bukavu.

20 December United Nations General Assembly continued ad hoc account for Congo expenses and authorized the Secretary General to spend up to $10 million a month until 30 June 1963.

December The (General Conference at its twelfth session ap- proved a programme of aid to the Congo In 1963 and 1964, including technical assistance to central and provincial Ministries of Education, assistance in recruiting teachers, technical assistance for the operation of the National Institute of Education, refresher courses for primary school teachers and inspectors, and such new projects as might be approved by the Executive Board. Financing included an estimated $4 million from the United Nations Congo Fund, $200,000 from Unesco’s regular budget, and $110,000 for educational planning under the Emergency Programme of Financial Aid to Member States in Africa.

1963

March

May

27 June

October

Use of Unesco Coupons for importing books and other school supplies to the Congo passed the $6 million mark. The Executive Board, having heard a report by the Director-General on the whole of Unesco’s action in the Congo to date, requested the Director- General to report to the board at its sixty-sixth session on measures proposed for the continuation of the action in 1964 and for a gradual transition in 1965 and 1966 from emergency aid to the types of aid normally supplied to developing countries. The Governing Board of the United Nations Special Fund approved the project for Special Fund assis- tance to the National Institute for Building and Public Works, designating Unesco as executing agency for the project. The United Nations General Assembly authorized the Secretary General to spend up to $5.5 million a month for the continuing cost of United Nations operations in the Congo until 31 December 1963. It appropriated an amount of $33 million for the period 1 July to 31 December 1963. In a report to the Executive Board, the Director- General of Unesco announced that Unesco would help the Congolese government recruit an additio- nal 250 secondary school teachers for the 1963-64

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school year. In addition, he noted that the Congo- lese government had advised the United Nations of its-willingness to make a financial contribution to the United Nations Fund for the Congo in 1963 for meeting the cost of the services of foreign teachers, should the position of the Fund make this necesssary.

The Director-General then outlined possible forms of aid which might be supplied to the Congo from 1965 onward, when the Congo would find itself in the same position vis-d-vis the Organization as any other Member State. The possibilities included a chief of mission and educational planning experts under the regular Unesco programme; experts under the Technical Assistance programme; possible approval by the Special Fund of the School of Mines and of the National Institute of Education, as well as two new projects: a technical teacher-training school and an agricultural teacher-training school; increased assistance from Unicef for pre-service and in-service training of primary school teachers and inspectors, and possible bilateral assistance for foreign teachers.

The Executive Board took note of these proposals and asked the Director General to submit to it, if possible at its sixty-seventh session, further pro- posals for the ‘normalization’ of Unesco’s aid to the Congo, in light of decisions which might be taken by the United Nations General Assembly.

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