Kinshasa, July 22sd, 2021 (CPA).- The Minister in charge of Higher and University Education (ESU), Muhindo Nzangi Butondo, launched on Thursday, in the enclosure of the Higher Institute of Commerce of Kinshasa (ISC/Kin), the preparatory workshop for the general states of its sector, in front of professors and managers of establishments, both public and private, who take part in this work.
The purpose of this important workshop is, according to Minister Muhindo Nzangi, to prepare working documents and reflect on the orientations to be given to the general states, in order to take courageous measures to reform ESU sector.
“We want the states-general that we are going to have in a month to be properly prepared. May all the great intelligences of our country concentrate on telling us what we are going to give as an orientation to these general states. The aim is to take courageous steps to reform the higher and university education sector, « he said.
According to Minister Muhindo Nzangi, the planned reforms concern in particular the effectiveness of LMD (License-Masters-Doctorate) system in all ESU establishments by next academic year, and he finds it abnormal that license degrees 3 years and 5 years are granted to students in the same country, given that LMD is already applicable in some universities.
This is abnormal, he said, “We must lift the options to help us overcome the obstacles that prevent us from carrying out these reforms. The reforms that we have already started, we must make them succeed. We must have an LMD system in the Congolese context”.
A framework law, it is recalled, was promulgated in 2014, integrating LMD system in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a view to bringing the country’s higher and university education up to international standards. However, this system is struggling to be applied in all ESU institutions.
According to the general director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa, Henri Kalama Akulez, the implementation of this system in DRC requires a readjustment of course content at all levels.
« The switch to LMD system must be accompanied by a change in the content to be taught to students for obtaining a bachelor’s degree in 3 years. This is what will be dealt with during the States-General”, he reassured. ACP/