Many problems undermine Congo-Brazzaville’s schools, including overstaffing in classrooms, lack of tables and benches for students, and shortages and exodus of teachers. Faced with this gloomy picture, an NGO is launching an initiative to “save the school” while more than 92,000 candidates will take the general baccalaureate from tomorrow, Tuesday, June 20th.
With the launch of the “Together Let’s Save the School” initiative, the NGO Dynamique promotes quality education for all. Its president Patrice Tsoumou believes that saving the school is no longer the only business of the state.
“I thought that the school is the ship in which any nation embarks to go towards the shore of development”, analyzes Mr. Tsoumou, but he is bewildered to note that “our ship in the Congo is in the process of taking in water from all sides.
If we don’t save the school, the branch we’re sitting on will be sawed off, because right now it’s just government business,” he explains.
“But, we think there are many things we can do, all together, the whole population. It’s an idea that I think is simple, practical, and effective,” he suggests.
The president of the dynamic declared that each contributor must contribute according to their purse. He stated that if they had 10,000 contributors in a district, each giving 3,000 CFA francs, then they would have 30 million CFA francs to use to solve some of their problems.
Patrice Tsoumou believes this money will allow him to resolve “insoluble problems, such as overcrowding in classrooms”, by purchasing tables and benches without having to wait for the government to provide funding.