We have exciting news that couldn’t wait until the next monthly update: 100% of the Congo Peace School seniors passed the national exam! And it is the ONLY school in the area (six other secondary schools) with a 100% success rate.
We measure success in many ways at the Peace School [CPS] – monitoring through conversations that students are ingesting the principles of peace and nonviolence and living them out day to day in relationship with each other, their teachers, and their families. This nationalized scholastic achievement proves the importance of the Congo Peace School’s different approach to education from the typical pedagogy in the country. Instead of classrooms packed with 70 to 80 students per teacher, we limit class size to around 40, and employ assistant teachers to provide more one-on-one attention. Instead of rote learning and repetition of what the teacher says, our teachers are trained to foster curiosity and questioning, everyone learning equality – between male and female students and students and teachers. Other schools use corporal punishment, but the CPS teachers are taught healing-informed techniques, looking for signs a student might be experiencing mental health issues or illness or problems at home, and our school counselors are available for psychological support and interventions.
We had celebrated graduation with these students on July 1, 2023, honoring that they completed the CPS curriculum, but had to wait until now to learn the results of the national exam that informs the seniors they are officially high school graduates. (The Democratic Republic of Congo publishes these results typically in mid-late August, but had various setbacks at the national level. The late-summer results explains the reason universities and colleges in DRC begin enrollment and start classes in November each year.)
Our Founding Director Amani Matabaro reports the students arrived at the Congo Peace School to learn the results and danced in celebration. It’s a huge morale boost for the whole community, who feel this school is a part of them, many of them investing their time, labor, and the small amounts of money they can to build it and help with upkeep and community clean-up.
These students were selected to start when the doors of the Congo Peace School first opened in 2018 as they were most in need: either orphaned or from families experiencing extreme poverty, most had missed school, had been kicked out for not paying school fees, and were experiencing food insecurity. Five years of education rooted in healing, peace and nonviolence, and equality, they are the top students in the region, celebrating their success with all of you, who have made this school possible. Thank you for partnering with them!
Celebrating the national exam results at the Congo Peace School
Amani with the graduates in July 2023