Consolidating the achievements of Félix Tshisekedi's first term: Tony Mwaba inaugurates E.P.A. 1 and 2 Lemba

This is part of an ongoing series of initiatives aimed at building on the achievements of President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo’s first term. On Monday, March 4, 2024, the Minister of Primary, Secondary, and Technical Education (EPST), Professor Tony Mwaba Kazadi, inaugurated E.P.A. 1 and 2 Lemba, a new building that joins the list of schools constructed and renovated with the aim of making all public schools competitive.

Held in the Mont Amba educational province, today’s ceremony brought together several national and provincial officials from the ministry, as well as teachers, students, and administrators from the newly built school.

Minister Tony Mwaba was welcomed with all the honors befitting his rank, especially in light of his leadership, which has yielded several initiatives with visible impact in the sub-sector.

Speaking on the occasion, the head of the EPST emphasized that this is an emergency project initiated by the ministry on the instructions of the head of state, to enable the Democratic Republic of the Congo to have adequate public school infrastructure.

"All the competitive schools today in Kinshasa or elsewhere are private or charter schools. And yet, the issue of education is primarily the responsibility of the state. We want to work toward this goal so that the state can reclaim its place or its monopoly in the education sector," stated Professor Tony Mwaba.

The minister noted that the construction of this school was made possible thanks to the memorandum of understanding signed between the National Directorate for Construction, Maintenance, Rehabilitation, and Management of School Infrastructure (DINAC) and the Fund for the Promotion of Education and Training (FPEF), to finance the project to build and rehabilitate so-called "model schools," which will be expanded to all provinces of the country.

"Thanks to thesupport of the FPEF, allocated operating funds to the School Infrastructure Directorate, which helped us rehabilitate the six public schools in the city of Kinshasa. We have made these schools competitive, first through the quality of the buildings and infrastructure—including desks and even the quality of the administrators and teachers who will now teach here—so as to provide our children with a quality education. And I would like to remind you that public schools today receive a grant of 10 million Congolese francs for operating expenses to ensure they remain competitive. But then, the last school we will inaugurate—I believe in one or two weeks—will be the I.T.I. Matonge, before moving on to the provinces,” he said.

The administrators of EPA 1 and 2 Lemba are called upon to ensure the proper management of this school, a gem that allows school-age children in the Kinshasa Mont Amba educational province—and even those from the surrounding areas—to study under the best conditions in this era of free primary education.

Christian BELLA