UNICEF-France gives US $104,000 for girls education

The UNICEF Committee of France has chosen to sponsor a girls education programme in the Kasai provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with a contribution of US $104,000, UNICEF announced from Kinshasa on Tuesday. The experimental programme targets nine schools in the region of Kazumba in Kasai Occidental province and in the regions of Miabi and Tshilenge in Kasai Oriental province. The project may be expanded to other schools after an evaluation, due to take place at the end of 2002. The objective of the project is to raise the number of girls attending school full-time from 42 percent to 62 percent of the population; to reduce the rate of dropouts to less than 10 percent; and to raise the rate of girls continuing education at a secondary level. Different aspects of the programme include supplying schools with furniture and books; construction of latrines and water faucets; supporting the training of teachers and dissemination of teaching innovations with special attention to gender issues; and reinforcing capacities of parents' committees to monitor girls' school attendance. The initiative to reinforce girls' education originated from surveys conducted by the DRC Ministry of Education with the support of UNICEF in 1998-1999 in the two Kasai provinces. The results of these surveys showed a low level of school attendance by girls: 56 percent for Kasai Oriental and 44 percent for Kasai Occidental. These levels were attributed to socio-economic, socio-cultural, historic and institutional factors.