Democratic Republic of the Congo Language of Instruction Country Profile
level (Meysonnat & Torrano, 2020). Despite the majority of primary teachers being
trained, there are concerns around the degree to which training at the secondary
level prepares teachers to teach effectively. For instance, an EGRA conducted in 2012
revealed that only 50% of primary teachers assessed, received a passing score on the
reading comprehension portion of the test, and only 36% received a passing score on
the written component (Meysonnat & Torrano, 2020).
To address teachers' additional training needs, the DRC is currently working with the
Global Partnership for Education (GPE) to establish teacher training institutes (Institute
de Formation de Maître, or IFM in French) where teachers who have completed
senior secondary can enroll in further pre-service teacher training, as well as in-service
professional development workshops (Meysonnat & Torrano, 2020).
TEACHER LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY/LANGUAGE SPECIFIC
TRAINING
A language mapping exercise of five provinces in the DRC found that 99% of the 500
teachers interviewed were competent in the national language used as the initial LOI in
that province (Chemonics International & SIL LEAD, 2018). The high rate of proficiency
in the initial LOI was attributed to the fact that most teachers were working in the
province in which they were raised. Thus, they were likely to have previous exposure to
the national language used in that province and have learned it in school themselves. This
may be a result of teachers being selected directly by schools themselves and then hired
by the MEPSP, as it is unlikely that schools would recruit teachers who did not speak the
LOI (Meysonnat & Torrano, 2020). Though not generalizable to the rest of the country,
there did not appear to be mismatches between teachers' language proficiencies and
the national language which students spoke (Chemonics International & SIL LEAD,
2018).
The language mapping study also aimed to gauge teachers' attitudes toward using the
national languages as the initial LOI, as opposed to French. It found that teachers had
overwhelmingly positive reactions toward using the national languages to speak with
enumerators as well as using the national languages to teach in the classroom. As such,
teacher attitudes did not seem to be an impediment toward the implementation of
mother tongue reading instruction (Chemonics International & SIL LEAD, 2018).
An initiative of GPE called the Education Quality Improvement Project (EQUIP) is
supporting the implementation of the national languages policy by delivering language-
specific teacher training. EQUIP has updated and validated training modules on
reading and writing in the four national languages, and delivered training to 28 national
teacher trainers, 508 provincial trainers, and 12,230 teachers on this topic as of 2020
(Meysonnat & Torrano, 2020).
TEACHER IN-SERVICE
In-service teacher training opportunities in the DRC are limited, and there is no
standard path for career advancement for teachers (School-to-School International,
2019). USAID's Accès, Lecture, Retention et Redevabilité, or access, reading, retention
and accountability, (ACCELERE!) project is working to address the lack of in-service
training opportunities in the DRC and to orient teachers to the project's EGR approach.
As such, ACCELERE! has developed teacher training materials, including video modules,
in the national languages and French to support literacy acquisition in both languages
(USAID & DFID, 2015). Teachers will also receive coaching support to implement the
reading program pioneered by ACCELERE! through a multi-tiered model that includes
training and support at the classroom, school, and cluster levels (School-to-School
International, 2019). In support of this training model, the project trains master trainers,
coaches, and literacy monitors who all support teachers to implement the ACCELERE!
reading program (USAID & DFID, 2015).
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO | LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION COUNTRY PROFILE
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