Since primary education was made free in 2019, there has been a steep rise in both numbers of students and teachers working for nothing.He has yet to be paid.
For years, DRC's public schools have relied on unpaid educators like Sivyaghendera. Many work in exchange for a small portion of tuition fees, in hopes of eventually joining the government payroll and earning the official paycheck, currently about 230,000 Congolese francs per month. Since September 2019, the government has begun paying at least 195,000 more teachers, but more than 315,000 working teachers still remained unpaid as of November 2021.
In the Kirumba school district, where close to 40% of primary school teachers are unpaid, full compensation would require another 184.2 million francs per month, he says. Muvunga urges patience and creativity from school faculty and administrators until the government can afford to pay all teachers. "Every month, we ask the children to bring 1 kilo of dried cassava chips," says the principal of a Kirumba school where four out of 20 teachers are unpaid.
Esther Kahambu Kazi, a teacher at Buhimba primary school in Kirumba, says she depends on such charitable gestures."I live off small contributions from colleagues who get paid," she says."Maybe the windows of heaven will open for me one day. I'm really struggling."
Shocking in a country where UN workers are overpaid, NGO workers are spoilt and pampered and cash is handed out to who knows what..
This is quite unfortunate In This 21st century.