Second wave of religious denominations sign new School Agreement

Following the first round on Friday, November 11, during which six representatives of religious denominations readily signed the new agreement on the management of public preschool, primary, and secondary schools, five additional representatives of religious denominations signed the document with the Congolese government, represented by the Minister of Primary, Secondary and Technical Education (EPST), Professor Tony Mwaba Kazadi, on Wednesday, November 16, 2022.

These include the representative of the Revival Churches in Congo, the representative of the Islamic Community, the representative of the Salvation Army, the representative of the Seventh-day Adventist Evangelical Mission, and the representative of ESECO.

The representative of the Islamic Community emphasized that this agreement breathes new life into the educational system, which represents the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To that end, he believes it is essential to support the leadership of the head of the EPST, Professor Tony Mwaba Kazadi, who spared no effort to secure the signing of this legal framework governing the partnership between the Congolese state and religious denominations in the field of education.

For his part, the representative of the Revival Churches in Congo, Reverend Israël Dodo Kamba, expressed his satisfaction, noting that today they are at least certain of the nature and content of the new school agreement.

“It is a feeling of joy, we must admit, because for all this time we have been operating without having ratified what was agreed upon—it has been several years. So this time, we can say that we are now operating according to what we intended, according to what we agreed upon,” he stated.

At the request of Reverend Israël Dodo Kamba, Minister Tony Mwaba decided to establish a permanent consultative framework between the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (EPST) and the religious denominations that signed the new school agreement, which replaces the one from February 1977 after 45 years.

Christian BELLA