Tony Mwaba in Lubumbashi to officially launch the 2015 distribution of state diplomas and continue the "Not a school without benches" campaign

On the evening of Thursday, June 22, 2023, the Minister of Primary, Secondary, and Technical Education (EPST), Professor Tony Mwaba Kazadi, arrived in Lubumbashi, where he was welcomed by the Provincial Committee of Haut-Katanga 1. His mission in this part of the country is to officially launch the distribution of the 2015 state diplomas and to distribute desks as part of the ongoing “No School Without Desks” campaign in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The distribution of the 2015 state diplomas remains an initiative of Minister Tony Mwaba to assist recipients who have long been disadvantaged in higher education institutions and universities. This delay was caused by a debt owed to the printer by the predecessors of the current head of the EPST, amounting to over one million U.S. dollars.

The settlement of these arrears is now possible thanks to the dynamism of Professor Tony Mwaba as well as the personal involvement of the President of the Republic and Head of State, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, in resolving this problem, which threatened the academic progress of Congolese students living abroad, where the use of certificates of completion is either temporary or refused.

The second objective of the Minister of EPST in Lubumbashi is to continue the “No School Without Desks” campaign, an initiative that positively addresses one of the unintended consequences of free primary education: the problem of overcrowded classrooms. Professor Tony Mwaba will thus proceed with the delivery of desks to a few selected schools.

On Saturday, June 24, 2023, the head of the EPST will travel to Mbuji-Mayi, in the province of Kasaï-Oriental, to launch the 2023 regular session of the State Exam.

The same city will also welcome the President of the Republic, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi, who has made primary education free in public schools across the DRC—a flagship reform of his five-year term.

Christian BELLA