Democratic Republic of the Congo Language of Instruction Country Profile
USAID READING PROGRAM APPROACH AND
ONGOING PROGRAMS
In alignment with the U.S. Government Strategy on International Basic Education,
USAID's programming in the DRC aims to support the needs and priorities of the
partner country to ensure that gains from the programming are sustained.
As such, USAID established a joint primary education initiative with the U.K.
Department of International Development (DFID) called ACCELERE!. ACCELERE!
aims to improve equitable access to education across eight provinces in the DRC,
including Haut-Katanga, Lualaba, Kasaï Central, Kasaï Oriental, Equateur, Sud-Ubangi,
Nord-Kivu, and Sud-Kivu. ACCELERE! includes four separate components. The first
component targets equitable access and learning through a six-year (2015-2021), $134
million initiative implemented by Chemonics International. ACCELERE! I aims to improve
EGR outcomes by developing and distributing teaching and learning materials in the
national languages and French, and implementing in-service professional development
that builds teachers' capacity to deliver effective EGR instruction and facilitate the
transition to French instruction by the end of Grade 4. In response to COVID-19,
the project has also pivoted to distance learning, and is developing radio lessons in
the national languages to ensure that students still have access to quality educational
opportunities (Chemonics International, Inc., n.d.).
The second component of ACCELERE! aims to improve governance and
accountability in the education sector through a six-year (2015-2021), $24 million
initiative implemented by Cambridge Education. This includes improving government
transparency by strengthening budgeting, planning, and payroll systems and increasing
school accountability by supporting parental and community involvement in creating
school budgets and improvement plans. The third component targets monitoring
and evaluation, with a six-year (2015-2021), $25 million initiative implemented by
International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. to design and implement both
performance and impact evaluations of the project. Last, component four focuses on
reducing the number of out-of-school children through a three-year (2018-2021), $50
million initiative implemented by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) (USAID,
2020).
USAID also launched the Integrated Youth Development Activity (IYDA),
a three-year (2018-2021), $22 million initiative to provide vulnerable youth with
inclusive educational and economic opportunities across the DRC. Implemented by the
Education Development Center, IYDA implements interventions such as professional
development and life skills trainings, youth-led income generation programs, and literacy
outreach to encourage learning outside of formal school environments. IYDA currently
works in North and South Kivu and aims to improve access to basic education for
12,000 children and youth and provide entrepreneurship and professional development
training for 8,000 youth (Education Development Center, n.d.).
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WITHIN USAID PROJECTS
Community support for improved EGR instruction is a critical component of
ACCELERE!, as the project firmly believes that sustainable education reform occurs
from the bottom-up (USAID & DFID, 2015). As such, ACCELERE! works to increase
community participation in school-based and extracurricular reading activities. In
particular, ACCELERE! supports communities in accessing information about their
schools, such as school development plans and financial information, so that community
members can become informed advocates for quality education and EGR instruction
(USAID & DFID, 2015). ACCELERE! distributes this information by encouraging
community participation in school conferences and meetings, and also posting updates
and financial statements on community notice boards.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO | LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION COUNTRY PROFILE
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