Broken Chalk Calls for Urgent Global Action to Protect Education in the DRC

Statement by Panashe Mlambo, Department Head of Research and Journalism

Education is every child’s right, yet for millions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it remains a distant dream. Right now, an estimated 7.6 million children are out of school, and shockingly, half of all girls aged 5-17 are unable to attend classes. This is not due to a lack of ambition or willingness to learn but because of deep-rooted challenges poverty, conflict, and chronic underfunding that make education nearly impossible for so many.

The Cost of Conflict: A Generation Left Behind
Across the DRC, schools are not just closing they are being destroyed. Nearly 1,700 schools have been forced to shut their doors due to persistent insecurity, particularly in areas controlled by armed groups. In just the past year, another 540 schools were lost to escalating conflict. Schools should be places of hope and safety, yet at least 160 were looted or burned in a single year, erasing opportunities for thousands of children.
Without access to education, young people become even more vulnerable to recruitment as child soldiers, to forced labour, to trafficking. Many experience the trauma of violence firsthand, leaving deep psychological scars that make learning even harder. The impact is devastating, not just for individual children but for the future of an entire generation.

Hunger, Displacement, and Failing Systems
The crisis extends beyond education. Families already struggling with displacement due to war now face worsening food insecurity. 1.3 million children suffer from severe malnutrition, a crisis that affects their growth, concentration, and ability to thrive in any learning environment. Meanwhile, for those fortunate enough to remain in school, education quality is critically low, with the DRC ranked among the countries where children’s education is at “extreme risk”. Instead of increasing support, the government has cut education funding from 21.6% to 18.4%, further straining an already overwhelmed system.

The World Cannot Stand By
The war in the DRC is not happening in isolation. It is being fueled by external actors—notably Rwanda and Uganda, who have been linked to the armed group M23. Despite Rwanda’s involvement in the conflict, it continues to receive foreign aid from nations like the United States and institutions such as the World Bank. This contradiction is unacceptable.

We call on the international community to condemn Rwanda’s role in the war, halt all military and financial support to aggressor states, and take urgent action to protect the rights of Congolese children. Schools must be safeguarded, funding must be restored, and every child must have the chance to learn in a safe and nurturing environment.
This is not just an education crisis it is a humanitarian emergency. We must act now, before another generation is lost.

Photo by Pawel Janiak on Unsplash

Current Issues The conflict in Congo: impact on education

By Zoe Alford

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is undergoing a major humanitarian crisis, that is severely impacting education and human rights. Due to the ongoing conflict in the region, millions of people have been displaced, teachers kidnapped and schools turned into battlegrounds. Escalation of the conflict in the North Kivu region of the DRC has forced 540 schools to close in the past year, removing pivotal educational opportunities from many students (Save the Children, 2024).

Education in the DRC:

This current situation unravels decades of progress in the DRC, where great strides had been made in recent decades to create universal access to education. Access to primary school education has increased significantly in the last few decades, with net attendance rates increasing from 52% in 2001 to 78% in 2018 (UNICEF, 2024).

Nonetheless, the country still faces major structural issues regarding access to education. 7.6 million children and half of all girls between age 5-17 are not in school, with the cost of school for families living in poverty being a major reason (UNICEF, 2024). Despite the promise of free primary education from the DRC government, households facing extreme poverty struggle to pay for registration fees, school uniforms and school supplies (UNICEF, 2024). Secondary school enrolment rates further reflect this education gender gap, with 44% of girls enrolled compared to 70% of boys (UNESCO, 2024). This is further reflected in secondary school completion rates with just 51.4% of girls and 63.5% of boys continuing onto graduation (UNESCO, 2024). For higher education, 5% of women and 8% of men were enrolled in tertiary education in 2020 (UNESCO, 2024).

Payroll fraud, insufficient budgets, and a lack of materials and infrastructure also create challenges for the educational system in the DRC. Many of the 500,000 teachers in the country have gone without government pay for many years, leaving parents responsible to supplement their pay (Brant et al., 2021). In a country with already high levels of poverty, this creates a major financial obstacle to education. Teachers often must supplement their low incomes with second or even third jobs, reducing their time, energy, and passion and consequentially the quality of teaching (Brant et al., 2021).

The gender gap in school enrolment, the socio-economic disparities in educational access, as well as financing issues, are only worsened by the escalating conflict in the DRC. With the closing of hundreds of schools in the country, these systemic issues have and will continue to exacerbate, leaving hundreds of thousands more and more children without education opportunities.

Violence in North Kivu:

Since the beginning of the conflict in DRC in 1996, more than 6 million people have died and many millions more displaced (CFR, 2024). Beginning in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, the First Congo War saw the invasion of the eastern part of the DRC by Rwandan troops and Congo-based Tutsi militias. The invasion of the north Kivu region was supported by Uganda, Burundi and Congo’s then opposition leader and future leader Laurent Kabila. Rwandan officials justified the invasion, arguing that Hutu groups in eastern DRC were still a threat to their Tutsi population who had been decimated during the genocide. While some Hutu militants were killed, the majority of the thousands of causalities were refugees and non-combatant Congolese (CFR, 2024). In 1998, the second Congo War saw worsening political tensions between armed groups and governments in the region. With targeted campaigns against the Huti amounting to war crimes, it caused international outrage. In a failed coup attempt, DRC’s leader, Kabila, was assassinated and replaced by his son (CFR, 2024). The following years saw peace agreements between DRC, Rwanda and Uganda implemented, however rebel groups continued to emerge creating tensions and flashpoints in the last two decades. Most notability, is M23, a mostly Tutsi rebel group with ties to the Rwandan and Ugandan governments. The name is taken from March 23 2009, when the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) signed a peace treaty with the DRC government, becoming a political party and the M23 soldiers integrated into the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC). The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), and Islamic State (ISIS) are two major Islamist rebel and affiliated militia groups (Lawal, 2024). The DRC’s abundance of natural resources, especially their large reserves of rare earth minerals and metals essential for modern technology, has propelled their local problems onto the international stage. The involvement of China and historically, large US tech companies has only created further tensions and deepened inequality.

The violent and fraudulent national elections in 2023 saw major clashes between M23 and ADF. This again escalated in February 2024, creating a humanitarian disaster, political chaos and insecurity across the region. Education is not only indirectly affected by this conflict, but also actively targeted. Armed groups have seized 23 schools in the north Kivu region and directly attacked 10 schools (Save the Children, 2024). Teachers have also been kidnapped and students abducted on the way to school or in class. A further 29 schools have also been turned into emergency shelters for displaced civilians (Save the Children, 2024).

Conflict and its impacts on education:

Conflict also indirectly impacts on the right to education. Economic hardship often leaves children forced to work instead of going to school, with girls disproportionally affected. The long-term consequences of conflict can be felt by generations to long-term development setbacks and lack of opportunity (Mlaba, 2023). This leads to long term economic and social disruption, which in turn can trigger further conflicts in the future. Education and its relationship to conflict is often “complex, multi-scalar and non-linear” (Novelli & Cardozo, 2008), meaning that the impacts of conflict are often not immediately noticeable.

Emergency Education:

International efforts have been made to mitigate these effects by protecting education during conflicts and promoting conflict-sensitive education strategies (Mlaba, 2023). As an example of such mitigation efforts, UNICEF, the European Commission’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) and the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) have partnered up to construct three temporary learning spaces (UNICEF, 2024). In just a few weeks, with support from local communities, classrooms were constructed using wood and other readily available materials. These new spaces have allowed several dozen additional pupils to enrol. The temporary classes provide displaced children the opportunity to continue their education and benefit children from nearby families (UNICEF, 2024). On top of their academic studies, students are also learning essential social skills, such as interacting and building relationships with others outside their immediate community. Unfortunately, however, with around 3 quarter of a million children out of school because of this conflict, a lot more must be done to ensure all Congolese children have access to education (UNICEF, 2023).

Conclusively, To to ensure peace and development not only in the DRC, but across the globe, it is of paramount importance that education is prioritised for all children. By protecting education, investing in quality teachers, educating future generations about history and financing rebuilding projects, a more stable and equal society can be reached. While access to education is perhaps not the first issue that comes to mind when discussing the conflict in the DRC, it is highly important to use education as a tool to safeguard long-term stability and peace.

References

Brandt, C.O., Marchais, G., Mwakupemba, J.T., Moshonas, S. De Herdt, T. (2021). Why payroll fraud in the DRC’s education sector will be hard to fix. The Conversation.

https://theconversation.com/why-payroll-fraud-in-the-drcs-education-sector-will-be-hard-to-fix-162257

Center for preventative action (CFR). (May 15, 2024). Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo

Lawal, S. (February 21, 2024). A guide to the decades-long conflict in DR Congo. Aljazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/21/a-guide-to-the-decades-long-conflict-in-dr-congo

Mlaba, K. (June 26, 2023). How do war & conflict impact education? Global Citizen. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/how-do-war-conflict-impact-education/

Novelli, M., & Cardozo, M.T.L. (2008). Conflict, education and the global south: New critical directions. International Journal of Educational Development, 28(4), 473-488. doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2008.01.004

Save the Children. (2024, March 28). DRC: Violence in North Kivu forces over 500 schools to close, with teachers kidnapped and students terrified [Press release].

https://www.savethechildren.net/news/drc-violence-north-kivu-forces-over-500-schools-close-teachers-kidnapped-and-students-terrified

UNICEF. (March 29, 2023). Conflict in eastern DRC is having a devastating impact on children’s education. UNICEF [Press release].

https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/conflict-eastern-drc-having-devastating-impact-childrens-education

UNICEF. (2024). Education: every child has the right to go to school and learn.

https://www.unicef.org/drcongo/en/what-we-do/education

UNICEF. (February 22, 2024). A wish to return to school is realized. UNICEF

https://www.unicef.org/drcongo/en/stories/wish-return-school-realized

UNSECO. (January, 2024). Congo, Democratic Republic (DRC): Education Country Brief. International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa.

https://www.iicba.unesco.org/en/node/80#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20UNESCO%20Institute,and%2063.5%20percent%20of%20boys

 

Featured image by Doug Linstedt  from Unsplash