Many of the higher education institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital Kinshasa were "fraudulent money-gathering dumps", claimed Minister for Higher Education and Research, Léonard Mashako Mamba, who has promised action to shut down those not up to acceptable standards.

Mashako was addressing heads of universities and institutes to report the findings of a commission he set up to investigate the state of higher education and decide which institutions were 'viable' and which should be closed.

He presented a 'terrible indictment', according to Le Phare of Kinshasa. "Some institutions are anything but establishments of higher and university education. Rather, they are fraudulent money-gathering dumps, as far as young people and parents are concerned," the paper reported the minister as saying.

Mashako repeated his determination to clean up the sector that educated the Congolese elite, and to close down non-viable higher institutes and universities without any soul-searching. He warned that people of influence who thought the closures would be annulled by a presidential decree would be mistaken, said Le Phare.

He was allowing two months for institutions on the borderline of viability to improve standards. After the Kinshasa inquiry, the country's remaining 10 provinces would be subject to scrutiny.

Soon, said Le Phare, "the anarchy that characterises higher and university education, with its institutions without buildings, without suitable teachers, without teaching materials, will be eradicated, or at least limited".

La Prospérité of Kinshasa claimed that as a result of the purge, 4,000 to 6,000 students would find themselves in the streets after closure of their institutions - set up, it said, to cater more for their promoters than the students.

The paper said that, as an academic of the 'old school', Mashako was the best person to detect the flagrant deficiencies in the system and find the necessary remedies. If care was not taken there was a risk that with the disappearance of its first generation of teachers, the Congo would face an acute teacher crisis, it said.

La Prospérité said the minister had contacted 'friendly countries', such as France for help with French language training. Other issues for his attention included developing the teaching of English, bringing order to a number of errant institutions and clarifying the status of others, encouraging women students and ensuring their safety, and dealing with the fraud associated with student housing.

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