Democratic Congo

In 1995, there were 429 preprimary schools in the DRC. They employed 768 preprimary schoolteachers who taught 33,233 students. Of these 15,956 were males and 17,279 were females. Most of these schools were in the capital and large cities. During the colonial era, only 3 percent of Africans enrolled their children in such schools. Today more people realize the value of such schools for their children's development and support them.

By 1995, the DRC had 1,885 primary schools and 121,054 primary school teachers. They taught some 5.4 million students of whom approximately 3.2 million were males and approximately 2.2 million were females. There was a pupil to teacher ratio of 40 students per teacher in 1990, but the explosive growth in enrollment pushed this ratio up considerably by 1996. Fast growth forced the DRC to hire many unqualified teachers and try to upgrade them on the job. Provinces now require that primary school students pass a provincial primary graduates examination to certify that they are prepared to succeed to secondary school.

Primary schools offer courses on religion, arithmetic, drawing, handiarts, singing, farming, penmanship, trades, and French. For those tracked to attend secondary school, intensive French and geography are encouraged.