Universities reopen despite ongoing spread of COVID-19

The government and higher education sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have succumbed to pressure from students and academics, resuming classes despite COVID-19 continuing to spread.

Universities and colleges reopened on 10 August following more than four months of inactivity following the declaration by DRC President Félix Tshisekedi of a state of emergency which crippled higher education institutions.

The government has now relaunched the sector, hoping that observing health measures such as social distancing, wearing of masks and handwashing will prevent the coronavirus spreading.

According to data from Worldometers, on 25 August there were 3,979 cases of COVID-19 in the DRC and 78 deaths, although those figures could involve under-reporting, and the number of new registered cases continues to climb.

One concern is that students in poorer facilities may not be able to benefit from the reopening because overcrowding in classes and poor ventilation will make such institutions unable to comply with government-mandated health precautions.

Damaging impact of COVID-19

The University of Kinshasa, based in the capital, will reopen, with Professor Jean de Dieu Minengu, vice-dean for research at the faculty of agronomy, saying the lockdown has had a damaging impact on an institution which teaches more than 30,000 students.

“We suspended classes because first it was necessary to protect the lives of students, teachers and administrative staff,” he said. However, a small team of staff were able to provide “minimum service”, enabling the university to keep ticking over and be ready for reopening, he said.

Moreover, many faculties were sufficiently advanced with teaching before the lockdown so that “with the resumption of classes, we will end the academic year in three months,” he told University World News.

Distance learning has not been a viable option for the university, he explained: “Internet connection remains a luxury for Congolese students. How do you organise distance learning when a lot of students don't have the necessary equipment to have online classes?” he asked. “They can have a computer, but don’t have electricity or internet. It’s difficult at the moment to think of distance and online learning.”

Poor internet access

To help increase access to the internet, some private operators have tried to provide internet connections to the university campus, but technical problems have impeded progress, especially for students working at home. “The great difficulty remains with the students. Less than 20% of them have internet access to benefit from this kind of arrangement,” said the vice-dean.

Meanwhile, there have been deaths among University of Kinshasa academics since the lockdown, said Minengu, with concerns that some may have fallen victim to COVID-19.

Prisca Manyala, president of the student representative body at the University of Kinshasa, said even for students and lecturers who have remained healthy, COVID-19 has caused damage. “Bachelor and graduate finalists have been unable to progress normally with their dissertations and postgraduate work because libraries have remained closed during this time of lockdown,” she said.

Manyala said the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the obstacles existing in the DRC in the use of new information and communication technologies.

“The University of Kinshasa cannot organise distance and online learning at this time,” she said, noting that Congolese law does not actually formally authorise the remote delivery of higher education.

Academic fee payment has also been a major problem, said Manyala, who said negotiations have been ongoing between student representatives and academic authorities to give students more time to settle the last instalments of their academic fees for the current academic year, which cost CDF485,000 (US$250).

The situation at the University of Kinshasa has been mirrored at the National Pedagogical University (NPU or Université Pedagogique Nationale), another Kinshasa-based higher education institution, which was also effectively paralysed during the lockdown.

‘Better than a wasted year’

Francis Vibila, a student union president at NPU, said that while COVID-19 has had an impact on teaching and learning, the reopening offers hope. “Better a hard landing than a crash,” he said, explaining that the opportunity to catch up was way better than a wasted year.

Vibila regretted that the university had not created more ICT infrastructure before the pandemic struck, which would have allowed it to offer virtual services this year. Indeed, his student body had pressed NPU academic authorities since 2016 to integrate distance courses within university courses but nothing was done, he said.

“We hope that our request will be taken into account from the next academic year.”

Vibila said students had nonetheless managed to make progress in writing theses and undertaking graduate research, even though access to libraries was difficult.

Sadly, there have also been reports that NPU professors have died from COVID-19.

Similar disruptions have been experienced at the University of Lubumbashi, in the DRC’s second largest city located in the southeast of the republic. “Everything was affected,” said Professor Jean-Marie Lunda Ilunga, the academic general secretary of this public university. This is despite the region’s comparative wealth from nearby mining activities.

Private universities

Private universities within the DRC have sometimes fared better, especially those with links to overseas higher education institutions, such as the Leadership Academia University in Kinshasa, which has links with Beulah Heights University based in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States and has been operating since 2012 in the DRC.

Leadership Academia University’s rector, Pastor Daniel Kawata, said that despite the lockdown, the university wanted to continue teaching and learning to meet obligations already struck with its US partner.

As a result, undergraduate and masters students from the faculties of business administration, governance and leadership, IT and communication were able to follow 20 remotely delivered courses given by American professors on the Zoom platform.

Kawata said that nearly 80% of his university’s students had been able to follow distance and online learning because of a reduction in internet prices by service providers associated with the university. Those students who could not take advantage of this lacked appropriate computing or smartphone equipment, he said.

Power cuts have also not been an issue impeding such work because contingency plans were laid in advance. “Untimely blackouts have not disrupted our operations because the university has a generator, which helps to supply electricity,” said Kawata.

Despite this progress, Leadership Academia University has had to focus its efforts, and it has yet to plan for reopening classes for entrance-year students. “We are focusing on the finalists first, while respecting social distancing, wearing of facemasks and washing of hands as health measures advised by the authorities in the country,” he told University World News.

Also, across the country industrial action is looming, showing that even during a pandemic standard grievances live on. Congolese lecturers have been threatening to strike now that universities have reopened, demanding an improvement in their living conditions and an annual salary boost of between US$2,000 and US$5,000.